A moratorium has been placed on electronic music events, commonly referred to as raves, at the Cow Palace following drug and alcohol-related incidents that led to two deaths.
The Cow Palace’s board of directors voted Tuesday to bar two events — the Subsonic Spookfest and Pop 2010: The Dream — from taking place in the arena, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Oct. 29 Subsonic Spookfest saw 17 people hospitalized, while two people who attended the Pop 2010 rave in May died of ecstasy overdoses with at least six others needing treatment.
In 2003, two people died of overdoses at a 2003 concert at the arena.
The moratorium does not have a specified length of time, but it doesn’t ban raves from being held at the arena in the future, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Joe Barkett, chief executive officer for the arena, said the board’s decision wasn’t meant to blame promoters for the problems. He said the Cow Palace is vigilant in screening promoters.
“It wasn’t because there was inadequate security or medical staffing levels — in fact, it was just the opposite,” Barkett said. “And yet, we still had this year, contrary to prior years with these events where we did not have these problems, we still had a number of individuals out of 12,000 to 16,000 people overdose on drugs.”
The Cow Palace, located in Daly City just across Geneva Avenue from San Francisco, is owned by the state Department of Food and Agriculture.
