Electric Zoo Festival officials have issued a statement following several reports of alleged security abuse during the 2019 event.
After a successful weekend of bass drops and song bops, many attendees are turning to Facebook as an outlet to express their dissatisfaction in regards to their mistreatment during search procedures. Check out their Facebook page here.
Many people state that guards were verbally abusive, irrational, and relentless. Female attendees are horrified at the intensity of pat-down searches. One woman in particular claims three officers touched her “everywhere” after forcing her into a strip search.
This is not the first time there have been issues about security processes, or from this festival in particular. Following the 2014 event, festival-goers swamped social media with criticism over, you guessed it: aggressive searches. Some of these include violating personal pat-downs, security cameras, and drug-sniffing dogs.
Although the 11th anniversary event was the first to introduce the subtitle “Evolved”, it seems like most people here want to see security procedures evolve.
“The safety and welfare of all those who attend Electric Zoo is our top priority,” EZoo wrote in the response. Officials are encouraging attendees to send all and any incident reports to security@electriczoo.com. All cases will remain anonymous and confidential.
EZoo has taken the correct steps in finding a solution for these issues, which is a start. The reality is that these security issues appear to resurface each year for MANY festivals. Security and safety matters will certainly continue be an ongoing conversation in the festival world moving forward. Stay tuned for further updates on this matter.