California Assemblywoman Fiona Ma has introduced a bill that would ban all public nighttime events longer than 3.5 hours that feature "pre-recorded music." AB74, titled (I kid you not) The Anti-Raves Act of 2011, carves out a niche for clubs and sporting events and those who own clubs and sports arenas but shuts down such events in public venues. Stated as an attempt to shut down such events as this year's Pop: The Dream and Electric Daisy Carnival, this means that Insomniac and Skills would simply need to find a club owner willing to take a share of the profits in exchange for use of their business license. Event promoters that own a stake in an existing club or clubs are fine as well. Small and medium-sized promoters wanting to throw a DJ'd event in a rented warehouse or farm are the ones who will be affected most by this legislation, and the many, many communities of people that go to these disparate events.
Smells like Assemblywoman Ma is out to protect someone, but it's the nightclub owners, not ravers.
We all know that parties aren't going to stop just because they're illegal. This is a scene that was built on the renegade, the break-in warehouse party. It is a GOOD THING when they are above-board, where we can attend to emergencies that happen, where the city and county have a say in how security is run and emergency services are provided. The LA County task force saw this and implemented harm reduction measures and ecstasy information on top of their already formidable public safety focus. This bad law will mean more events in buildings without emergency services, wihout fire code inspections, potentially without running water or bathrooms. When some kid overdoses on shady pills miles away from a 911 response, this will be the cause.
About the bill:
Press release
Text of the bill
Fiona Ma's socal networking accounts:
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/fionama
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/CA.FionaMa
Twitter - twitter.com/fionama
Media:
LA Weekly post with promises by Ma to include ravers in hearings about the bill.
LA Times article with statement by Jason Sperling (aka Dyloot) of Skills DJ, promoter of Pop: The Dream at the Cow Palace.
Anti-AB74 Facebook page.
SF Bay Guardian calls it the latest in the War on Fun.
SF Chronicle - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/23/BAV11GUFRV.DTL
SF Weekly: http://blogs.sfweekly.com/shookdown/2010/12/one_sf_lawmaker_wants_to_ban...
Join the movement against this bad legislation at savetherave.org
