The POP2012 electronic music fest, which is the latest incarnation of the party that contributed to the MDMA-related deaths of 23-year-old Anthony Mata and 25-year-old Trung Nguyen in 2010, is set to happen this Saturday at Oakland's Oracle Arena. The Cow Palace, where the 2010 edition was held, has since banned ravey sort of things, for fear of a repeat of the events of May 30, 2010 and the repeat wave of E-related hospitalizations in October of that year.

The organizers of POP, which is now in its 16th year (yes folks, raves are kind of dated), are defending themselves with comparisons to the cultural panic that Elvis and the Rolling Stones faced back in the day. Promoter Jason Sperling, owner of Skills DJ Workshop which organizes POP, also notes that they put on a fest at Oracle in September of last year and there weren't any problems.

Mata apparently ingested a dose of E so strong that his internal organs shut down, either from a rapid increase in body temperature, or something. But then sixteen others were hospitalized with similar danger-zone E overdoses after the Halloween party at the Cow Palace in 2010.

In any event, the big lesson here is always know your dealer don't do crazy amounts of drugs, kids! Learn from your elders. Most of us survived the first generation of raves, and P.S. the music pretty much sounds the same as it did then.

[Tribune]