[Breaking] Ellensburg Lawmaker Proposes $1 Gorge Ticket Fee For Emergency Services

State Rep. Matt Manweller, a Republican from Ellensburg, has just proposed a new $1 fee that will be added to tickets for events at our beloved Gorge Amphitheater to be used to fund emergency services for the area. Last year over $400,000 in unpaid medical bills were racked up by Gorge concert attendees who ended up having to go to the Quincy Valley Medical Center. Say what you will about the cost of healthcare in the US (that’s a different rant…) but the fact remains that it is incredibly expensive for the area to treat the influx of non-residents who come to the Gorge each concert season.

We are in full support of this charge, provided that the funds truly do go directly to emergency services. The $1 Gorge ticket fee multiplied by the number of people that buy tickets to events there each year has the potential to do a lot of good. DMNW strongly encourages using all of your available resources to practice harm reduction and taking care of each other, we’ve written about our love of resources like the Conscious Crew in the past. However, we also know that sometimes people do get in over their heads at festivals with drugs and we want to know that adequate emergency services are available in that event.

The fact of the matter is that without enough funding the Quincy Valley Medical Center will struggle to survive. This would be a detriment not only to concert goers but also the everyday citizens that depend on the hospital. The proposed $1 Gorge ticket fee for emergency services would be a huge boon in helping mitigate the hundreds of thousands of dollars lost by the medical center and by the fire department and EMTs who support the venue each summer. With all of the fees added on by ticket brokers (Hi Ticketmaster!) this is something we can absolutely get behind. We’d love to hear your thoughts though. Are you willing to have a $1 fee added to your ticket to fund the emergency services that seek to keep your festival experience safe?

Speaking of the Gorge, don’t forget that we are your resource for all things Paradiso and will have all you need to know once that glorious lineup is announced! For more details on this proposed fee check out the original posting from King 5 news in Seattle.