Raves Returning to LA Coliseum

Los Angeles - The Electric Daisy Carnival, an electronic-music festival that came under scrutiny when a 15-year-old girl died from an ecstasy overdose after attending last year's event, will be allowed back at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the stadium's governing body decided today.

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission agreed to allow the two-day festival to be held at the stadium, but crowds must be restricted to 75,000 people a day.

Festival organizers assured the panel that they planned to boost security and have more first-aid stations at the event, along with more secure fencing. Video taken at last year's event showed crowds scaling chain-link fences to get into the concert, bypassing entry lines and security checks.

The commission imposed a moratorium on rave events after 15-year-old Sasha Rodriguez died of an ecstasy overdose at the Electric Daisy Carnival last year. The panel lifted the moratorium in November, and in December adopted a series of guidelines aimed at making the events safer. Those guidelines included:

-- requiring rave-goers to be at least 18;

-- giving wristbands to anyone 21 or older, so that concession workers can tell who is old enough to drink alcohol;

-- instituting "cool-off" breaks during the show;

-- closing all raves by 2 a.m.;

-- briefing event staffers about drug overdose symptoms and heat exhaustion;

-- requiring that medical personnel be on site in case of an emergency; and

-- offering warnings about ecstasy and other drugs during public service announcements and in materials handed out during the festival.

The Electric Daisy carnival is scheduled for June 24-25.