Spectacles of light, music, and mayhem

Some critics have come forward to complain that raves are nothing more than open-air drug bazaars where tragedy is waiting to happen. Those who support raves say officials should concentrate on learning from what happened last weekend in Los Angeles and strive to make them safer.

The body that operates the publicly owned Coliseum will meet July 16 to determine whether it should extend a temporary ban it placed on such events after what happened at the Electric Daisy Carnival.

The event attracted a crowd the size of a medium-sized city; it was arguably the biggest event of its kind. But raves overall tend to grow in size and scale — a recipe for trouble.

About 45,000 people attended a New Year’s Eve event at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena where one person died and numerous drug overdoses were reported. In suburban Inglewood, last year’s annual Hard Summer music-dance party drew more than 18,000 people, including several hundred gate-crashers who prompted police to shut the event down when a riot ensued.

Part of the reason for the bigger crowds is that rave music has attracted a wider audience as more mainstream performers, such as Akon and the Black Eyed Peas, have begun to work with prominent dance music DJs such as David Guetta, said Joshua Glazer, editor-in-chief of URB Magazine, which follows the emergent music scene.

Also, the light shows at the larger venues have become “mind boggling,’’ he said.

“They’ve gone beyond, not just musically, but visually anything that has been done before,’’ he said of shows such as the Electric Daisy Carnival. “There was a stage there six to eight stories tall that was just a giant LED screen like nothing I’d ever seen before.’’

That seems to have contributed to the show’s troubles.

As dusk fell and stages began to explode in spectacular bursts of light, thousands attempted to move from the bleacher seats to the already crowded field for a closer look.

More than 100 people were taken to hospitals for everything from drug overdoses to being trampled by the crowd.

Among them was 15-year-old Sasha Rodriguez, who was attending her first rave when she collapsed.

A friend who tried to shield her said others stepped on them before Rodriguez was taken to a hospital for drug intoxication. She died Tuesday.