New rules won't tame raves

Singling out all-night dance parties a matter of scapegoating

Publication title: Edmonton Journal
Pages: A16 Section: Opinion

Publication date: May 13, 2000
Document type: Column
ProQuest document ID: 252718261
Copyright: Copyright Southam Publications Inc. May 13, 2000
Author: Gold, M

It's perfectly natural for parents to be confounded by their teenagers' behaviour, to hate their music and to worry about what they're doing on the weekends. It was ever thus.

If kids were just drinking beer and smoking pot, or going to nightclubs, some of today's parents could at least relate, if not approve. But when they're going to weird, all-night dance parties called raves and maybe trying new drugs with names like ecstasy, parents get understandably frightened.

Fear breeds the desire to control. And that, unfortunately, is what is happening in Edmonton and elsewhere as politicians, police and parents grapple with the rave phenomenon.

In Toronto, police have cracked down harshly on raves and have linked them to everything from gang violence to guns. Just this week, Toronto councillors supported a ban on all raves in city- owned facilities.

In our city, council is also talking about imposing rules on raves, though no one has yet advocated an outright ban. Administrators are looking at everything from security to ventilation to the number of washrooms available. But councillors are only reacting -- or more accurately, over-reacting -- to public fears. And they're in danger of making the problem worse.

The promoters who run local raves already do most of what city council would enshrine in a bylaw. They hire security, police and paramedics, they check for drugs, they have washrooms and water available. Several have now restricted their events to people older than 16.

What council members fail to understand is that too many rules will discourage people from promoting or attending raves, because they will no longer be the same, free-spirited events. Or maybe they understand that all too well.

The result, however, could end up being worse. Promoter Gary Dewhurst said the bad publicity of late has cut attendance at raves and has made landlords less willing to rent out space for the events. With no well-run raves to attend, teens will flock to smaller, poorly regulated, underground events, which may well prove more dangerous, he says.

Dewhurst, who moved here in 1992 from the U.K., where the rave scene was huge, said the Edmonton raves he's been to and organized are attended mostly by nice, well-behaved kids. He's never seen anyone collapse, and said the eight or 10 teens admitted to hospital with seizures following a recent rave run by another promoter were the exception, not the rule. Some speculate their problems were induced more by powerful strobe lights than by drugs.

While there's no doubt ecstasy and other drugs are a part of rave culture, that isn't reason enough to condemn raves. Promoters don't condone drug use and frisk all ravers for drugs, just as officials at the Skyreach don't condone drug use at concerts. But one never hears city councillors advocating further restrictions on live music shows. I'd bet many of the parents who worry so much about raves wouldn't think twice about going to a Rolling Stones concert filled with marijuana-smoking fans.

In fact, some of the rowdiest crowds can be found at local concerts, not raves. As The Journal's music writer, Sandra Sperounes wrote in her review of a recent Headstones concert, "If you think raves are evil, then you've obviously never attended a Headstones show." Drunken fans staggered around the Shaw Conference Centre drinking beer, the bathrooms were a mess and police kicked out plenty of people for smoking pot, she wrote. The band, too, used powerful strobe lights.

And what about football games? The behaviour of drunken fans at your average Eskimos game -- fighting in the parking lot, swearing at the players, stumbling through the stands -- makes ecstasy- fueled teen ravers preaching their "Peace, Love, Unity and Respect" credo look pretty tame.

I went to a university football game in Ottawa some years ago at which women were so drunk, they were urinating in the sinks. We found one male friend passed out on the floor of the women's washroom. Another drunken acquaintance took a dive off the top of the bleachers and broke his back.

How many people have been injured inside or outside local bars and clubs? How often are those venues poorly ventilated, stiflingly hot or filled with choking smoke? And yet, they're subject to plenty of rules.

No amount of regulation is going to stop some people from being reckless and irresponsible. People overdose on drugs at house parties, concerts, clubs and on street corners. Teens can get in trouble behind the wheel of a car, at a bush party and yes, at a rave. But singling out one event for stricter treatment than the others is not only unfair, it's unlikely to do any good.