Dylan Stasiak Source 3

Question: How does the genre of electronic dance music (EDM) relate to rave culture at music festivals?

Dilkes-Frayne, Ella. "Tracing The "Event" Of Drug Use: "Context" And The Coproduction Of A Night Out On MDMA." Contemporary Drug Problems 41.3 (2014): 445-479. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Mar. 2015.

My third source follows a college student, Michael, who attends a music festival with his friend and takes MDMA. The article begins long before the festival even begins, four months prior, to be exact. It explains Michael’s thought process for whether he can afford the ticket, who he wants to go with, and if he should even go. After contemplating over whether he should go or not, he decides to go and take his friend with him. They both have a little MDMA left over from a different music festival and decide to take it for their favorite act they’re going to see. The article talks about festival security and how he should go about taking Molly onto festival grounds. The article talks about entering the site of the festival. Michael was nervous about getting MDMA onto festival grounds because he had a fear of sniffer dogs and police being present. Michael says he is expecting there to be sniffer dogs at this festival for two reasons. The first reason he said was because it was specifically a dance music festival and the second reason being it was the middle of summer. He thought it was the type of festival where there would be sniffer dogs. Also Michael said that he had been at music festivals where there had been sniffer dogs looking for illicit drugs (MDMA). Michael and his friend went in through a different entrance where there would be less crowd flow and possibly less security. Michael then talks about when he plans to take MDMA and the effects of it. Also he talks about “coming up, peaking, and coming down” during the day along with his experiences and feelings of all three.

This source had me thinking because I have been to music festivals in Chicago, IL and Los Angeles, CA and there was a lot of security at all three. This source follows a college student in Sydney, Australia. Australia, especially Sydney is a place where electronic dance music (EDM) is loved by millions of adolescents. It’s the same thing in the US, the genre of EDM has taken over in recent years and the clubbing scene has moved its way to outdoor weekend festivals. The article touched on Michael’s thought process of possible security and how he wanted to get MDMA into the festival. His main concern was sniffer dogs being able to smell out his molly. Michael said that this festival specifically would have good security so him and his friend entered through a less popular entrance to the festival. I think that festivals don’t like people using drugs at these festivals. My opinion of this is that these festivals have such strict security because the club culture has made its way to outdoor venues, they don’t want the drug culture associated with clubbing being at these festivals. Simply for the safety of festival-goers. Along with the getting past the dogs, he took precaution while sneaking the illicit drug into the festival. Michael seemed to have a lot of concerns about getting his capsule into the festival.

The moderately-strict security that Michael had experienced, as well as the security that I have had to go through, it makes sense to have worries about being arrested. I haven’t taken illicit drugs onto festival grounds but regardless of that, it is nerve-racking to go through security. I think that most festivals, all around the world want to prevent the use of illicit drugs, but clearly if Michael can sneak MDMA into his festival, their security hasn’t done much. Is that on purpose? Do festival securities purposely to make it easy for festival-goers to bring in drugs? Or do they not want to arrest a lot of people from having a good weekend because they paid so much money for his or her ticket? So far I’ve learned about the rave culture at clubs and festivals, I’ve learned what kind of drugs people are taking at these events. Now I’ve gone through the eyes of a festival-goer and how typical festival securities are. This makes me think about why music festivals are so popular. There are music festivals all around the world and each one has a different genre of music! Dance music seems to be associated with ecstasy and I want to find out why the two are associated with one another.