[divider]How We Got Here[/divider]
So how did we end up here? What’s to blame for the circumstances that lead to these ridiculous measures being allowed to happen? It all started on the first night of FreakNight, when an individual and his brother attended the yearly festival. According to a statement we got from Dr. Alex Garrard, Clinical Managing director of the Washington Poison Control Center, the young men showed up to the festival sober. Then at one point, the individual in question left his brother and the rest is speculation, as communicated to Dr. Garrard from the family. Dr. Garrard went on to note that “it’s still very unclear what actually happened…The family is still trying to figure it all out.”
Unfortunately that young man who left his brother passed away at the hospital later that evening from apparent hyperthermia, possibly related to the drugs he consumed while away from his group (as of now neither a tox-screen nor autopsy have been made available to the public). Dr. Garrard did tell us that the family has expressed that they will be reaching out to him when further details arise. It should be noted that up to that point, FreakNight 2014 had the lowest number of transports (trips to the hospital) of any USC festival.
A sort of hysteria fell into place afterwards as members involved with the festival went into damage control. Against the advice of Dr. Garrard, First & Goal (the venue’s management group) decided to shut the festival down on the second day of the show. USC Events, the organization throwing the festival, worked tirelessly to keep the show going, to no avail.
The events at FreakNight lead to USC Events being put in a very precarious and almost impossible situation for Resolution. First & Goal demanded that certain measures be met in order to have Resolution return for the annual New Year’s Eve celebration. USC Events did engage in some negotiations for protocols to be put in place to ensure the safety of the patrons. Some of these protocols though were non-negotiable, with the removal of the stall doors being one of those. If USC did not comply, Resolution would have been either cancelled or moved to another venue, making them face a struggle to find a large enough local venue to accommodate attendees on short notice. The Comcast Arena in Everett doesn’t have the infrastructure to handle that size of a crowd and the Tacoma Dome has expressed little interest in hosting large-scale massives (with the exception of Above & Beyond this March).
Important things happen in Pacific Northwest nightlife, and DMNW will send you alerts!
