3 dead after attending massive rave in Southern California

What should have been a good time, turned tragic.

(Image credit: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 10 August 2016

Three people died over the weekend after attending a giant rave at the Auto Club Speedway in Southern California.

The victims — identified as a 22-year-old man from San Francisco, a 21-year-old woman from San Diego, and a 22-year-old from Chino Hills, California — all fell ill at the Hard Summer rave, held near Fontana. A spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said one of the victims had a seizure, one was found unresponsive, and the third is believed to have suffered chest pain. All three were rushed to local hospitals, with two dying on Saturday and one on Sunday. The sheriff's spokeswoman said none of the incidents were related, and six other people were also transported to hospitals.

Nearly 147,000 people attended the giant rave, which featured performances from Ice Cube and Major Lazer. There were 370 sheriff's deputies and 230 security personnel on hand, and 325 people were arrested. Hard Summer was moved from its previous venue, the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona, after two people died during last year's festival. After that event, physicians across Los Angeles called for an end to large raves, where drug use can be rampant. The parents of one of the victims, a 19-year-old woman who died of multiple-drug intoxication after taking what she thought was Ecstasy, are suing Live Nation, the fairgrounds, Los Angeles County, and the city of Pomona, alleging negligence and "breach of duties" to protect rave attendees from people distributing and consuming illegal drugs, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox