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Foo Fighters’ CalJam to return in 2018

CalJam, the Foo Fighters-curated, Live Nation-promoted California festival which debuted last month, is to return for a second outing next October.

Inspired by Pacific Presentations’ California Jam – a one-off 1974 event headlined by Deep Purple and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, with the Aerosmith-headlined California Jam II following in 1978 – CalJam 2017 kicked off the US leg of the Foos’ Concrete and Gold world tour, with the band joined in San Bernardino on 7 October by Queens of the Stone Age, Liam Gallagher Royal Blood, Cage the Elephant, Wolf Alice and the Kills.

Frontman Dave Grohl suggested CalJam would return for a second year, and he’s as good as his word: Live Nation says CalJam 2018, which will once again take place at Glen Helen festival grounds, on 5 and 6 October, will include “another Friday night camping party followed by another Saturday 12-hour rock extravaganza: More fun, food, sun and sweat, more guitars and EVEN MORE GOOD TIMES.” (Emphasis theirs.)

No further information is yet available, although the promoter promises more details “will be announced as they are confirmed”.

 


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428 arrests but no deaths at Nocturnal Wonderland

Police made over 400 arrests at Nocturnal Wonderland at the San Manuel Amphitheater in California last weekend, but – in news that bodes well for promoter Insomniac’s strained relationship with San Bernardino County – there were no recorded deaths.

A total of 428 people – one in every 157 of the EDM event’s 67,195 attendees – were arrested, the majority for trespassing, public intoxication and possession of ecstasy, says the San Bernardino sheriff’s department, and 20 people hospitalised, but, like sister event Beyond Wonderland in late March, the festival was fatality-free.

A proposal to ban raves at the 65,000-capacity amphitheatre was struck down by San Bernardino County councillors in June, although Janice Rutherford, the councillor (or ‘supervisor’) behind the original motion is attempting to revive the bill following the deaths of two young people at Hard Summer at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana – promoted by Insomniac parent company Live Nation – last month.

 


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San Bernardino votes to save Insomniac’s raves

The board of supervisors of San Bernardino County has rejected a proposal which would have seen electronic dance music (EDM) events banned from the San Manuel Amphitheater, the home of Insomniac Events’ Beyond Wonderland and Nocturnal Wonderland.

The motion was proposed by Janice Rutherford, a member of San Bernardino County’s board of supervisors (roughly equivalent to a county council), in the first week of May. The supervisor cited the “dozens, if not hundreds” of complaints she said she has received from residents since the two events moved to the 65,000-capacity amphitheatre in Devore, California, in 2013, when the county entered into a contract with Insomiac parent Live Nation.

But Rutherford’s proposal failed to gain majority support when it went to vote on Tuesday, reports the San Bernardino Sun, with councillor Curt Hagman opposing and James Ramos and Josie Gonzales absent.

Live Nation employs more than 1,200 people at each of its events at the amphitheatre, and San Bernardino collects $1.4m in rent from the promoter annually

Instead of voting to sever the county’s contract with Live Nation, the three members of the board present agreed instead to petition Live Nation to end the events at 23.00 instead of their usual finishing times of 3.00 the next morning.

Matt Prieshoff, chief operating officer for Live Nation in California, said at the meeting that the promoter employs more than 1,200 people at each of its events at the amphitheatre. The county collects US$1.4 million in rent from Live Nation annually, and has earnt over $500,000 over the last two years as a percentage of ticket sales.

Devore resident Karen Slobom, quoted by the Sun, said the vote demonstrated “how economics – money – supersedes the lives and well-being of the people”.

Nearly 250 people were arrested at this year’s Beyond Wonderland for various offences including trespassing, being drunk in public and drug-related crimes, chiefly possession of ecstasy/MDMA with intent to supply, and one person died of a drug overdose in 2015.

 


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