DEVORE >> Live Nation will do some things differently at this year’s Nocturnal Wonderland Festival.
Raves like Nocturnal Wonderland are extremely popular — the 20th anniversary show in 2015 drew 85,000 people, according to Pasquale Rotella, CEO of host Insomniac — but also controversial.
Three people died at the Hard Summer Music festival in Fontana in July, reigniting a push to ban ravesat Devore’s San Manuel Amphitheater. Live Nation’s contract, which allows the entertainment company to host up to four electronic dance shows a year at San Manuel Amphitheater, expires in October.
And neighbor complaints led San Bernardino County Supervisor Janice Rutherford — who is also leading the ban effort — to push for some other changes for this year’s festival:
• Stationing a deputy on Devore Road to prevent rave attendees from parking in the community. A sign will be posted reading “Residents only.”
• Live Nation will be hiring a third party professional sound monitoring service to respond to noise complaints.
“In the past, it’s been done by Live Nation/Insomniac staff,” spokesman Scott Vanhorne said in an email. “A staff member from (San Bernardino County) Regional Parks will tag along with sound monitors. They will have a handout with the county’s noise standards with them so everyone knows what’s allowed and what’s not in terms of noise from the event.”
• Additionally, Live Nation is distributing written notices to Devore residents with a phone number for a hotline people can call to report noise complaints. And the stages will be oriented to decrease the amount of noise, Vanhorne said.
• The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, which Live Nation contracts for security and traffic control, will be operating as it has at past events, with a slight change in the traffic plan: More than 100 deputies will be deployed to local neighborhoods, parking lots, amphitheater and park entrances, at the Glen Helen Park campground, and in the festival area, said Deputy Olivia Bozek.
• Finally, a sheriff’s medical helicopter will also be on-site, as mandated for all electronic music festivals at the amphitheater, Bozek said.
Rotella said in an email that safety has always been his top priority.
“I am so proud of our health and safety measures,” he wrote. “We have the best teams in the world working at our shows and we are committed to setting the standard and ensuring that everyone who walks through our gates gets back home safely. I need our events to be good enough for my own kids to attend.”
Safety measures include manned free water refill stations, age restrictions, medical tents and volunteers called Ground Control that walk the premises looking for problems.
Rotella also said that banning raves would only increase the danger.
“I think that banning established events from San Manuel Amphitheater so people are driven out to further cities is irresponsible and reckless,” Rotella wrote. “Dance music is loved by several generations and it has crossed over to the mainstream. Forcing the young people of today into unregulated underground parties or events in the middle of nowhere — just so it’s not your problem — rather than making these events safer, is something I cannot understand. I want my kids to step out my front door and not have to go far to experience the best produced, safest and supervised shows possible, instead of events that are far away and possibly not managed properly. We are not going anywhere.”
Nocturnal Wonderland goes from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. today through Sunday at San Manuel Amphitheater, 2575 Glen Helen Parkway, Devore.