We previously gave EDM events organizer Insomniac credit for pushing their massive annual bacchanal of bass back until a time that holding fests could conceivably be safe. We’ll have to walk that back, as the Electric Daisy Carnival company is holding a rager next week at Lot 54.
Abduction Festival runs from 5 p.m.–midnight on April 10, with special guests including Diplo, Virtual Riot, and the novel coronavirus. The event is outdoors, masks are required and temperature checks are being performed. Given what we’ve learned about the way people act once they’re through the gates in the last year, we won’t hold our breath (or better yet, we will).
Abduction Festival is far from the first fest to jump the gun on getting back to normal. The dance music (why is it always …) festival CampINN recently announced a multi-day petri dish observation inside the Avanti Palms resort. Organizers Dirtybird told Orlando Weekly that they plan to create a “bubble” of a few hundred strangers.
“One thing that ensures safety at CampINN is it’s ‘once you’re INN, you’re in’ policy. Once on site, there are no in-and-outs; you’re there for the full weekend and are required to stay onsite in one of the hotel rooms. Capacity has also been reduced at the hotel,” they said. “In order to get into the event, you must pass both a temperature check and take a rapid test at the door (the rapid test can only be bypassed if you have a valid vaccination card). Masks are strictly enforced inside, and encouraged outside while social distancing will be enforced everywhere.”
All of this is window-dressing risk mitigation to avoid the blindingly obvious way to keep everyone safe: not throwing a festival in the first place.
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This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 6, 2021.