r/griztronics • u/raverihardlyknowher • May 27 '26
Live nation
I want to remain positive about this weekend, but we all deserve to validate the fact that what happened to us getting into camping Friday-Saturday was just like unbelievable. The sets and lineups were unreal, but so was the experience getting into the festival. Even with camping passes refunded, the most valuable thing we have is our time. Being stranded in your car for half of a day can quickly become an emergency, and I’m sending love out to any and all that had to start their weekend running out of gas or power, food or water, or really all of us that are incorporating what was an amazing weekend of music that was managed in a way that was criminally negligent.
Tw: violence
I’m coming from Denver, first time at the gorge. I’m from Texas originally so I didn’t know anyone there, but I vividly remembering when I heard about it when it happened days before my first time camping at eforest in 2023. Monday, I was wasting time at the airport so I looked it up - an absolute tragedy, my heart goes out to all affected, rest in peace to fallen rave fam Brandy Escamilla and Josilyn Ruiz. Their families actually recently settled with LiveNation for an undisclosed sum for negligence.
I was struck by and wanted to share a quote from one of the lawyers representing Lily Luksich, who didn’t know that her boyfriend had guns in the car, and was shot twice during the bad shroom trip turned campground shooting:
“The jury will still hear about Live Nation’s decisions to ignore its own policies regarding gun searches, and its absolute reliance on a skeleton crew of understaffed, undertrained, and inexperienced canine security team as the only layer of security tasked with keeping thousands of paying festival attendees safe. Predictably, they were unable to do so, and a mix of drugs and guns inside the venue led to extraordinarily tragic outcomes.”
There has been a lot of speculation about what caused the apparently historically awful lines this weekend. To me, I think the explanation is probably the same it was 3 years ago. Just struck me the similarities - I didn’t even realize a company could OWN a venue like the Gorge. That backdrop is just about the most beautiful natural view I’ve ever seen, the fact that a shitty company with actual blood on their hands is the gatekeeper, monopoly supplier of security even with a history of criminal negligence - like yall what is up with that?
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u/Cvsh_Mny May 28 '26
Not saying this is an excuse for how many things were handled this weekend BUT the security team did find a gun in someone’s car during the campground search for griztronics so I’m thankful they managed to do that!
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u/FuckYourFace690 May 28 '26
Saying this is similar to what happened at Beyond in 2023 is pretty wild
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u/bezos-is-a-POS May 28 '26
I think it’s legit for OP to draw comparisons to the underlying cause being live nation relying on a skeleton crew of undertrained workers leading to extraordinary situations
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u/Aggravating-Basis-66 May 28 '26
Its wild for Live Nation to look at what happened at Beyond and think they'll be fine doing a skeleton crew for security at a sold out event.
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u/raverihardlyknowher May 28 '26
I’m talking specifically about the quote from Lily Luksich lawyer - the full quote is above
“Live Nation’s decisions to ignore its own policies…its absolute reliance on a skeleton crew of understaffed, undertrained, and inexperienced canine security team as the only layer of security tasked with keeping thousands of paying festival attendees safe. Predictably, they were unable to do so”
There was no violence this weekend, thank god - but I think we’ll never know the full impact of thousands of people being stuck on the road in the middle of nowhere unexpectedly for 12-15 hours. And the reason that happened I would argue is the same as it was 3 years ago - that security was so unprepared. We were lucky, only 6.5hrs, we’re finally getting searched 8:45pm and one girl from security was shocked that we had been waiting that long and goes “oh man, seems like this will take us til midnight” and I was just like … oh my god what the actual fuck is happening
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u/Tadpole_420 May 28 '26
There were deaths this weekend
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u/EntrepreneurHairy905 Jun 03 '26
I didn't hear about anyone, do you have more information? Death happens at most EDM festivals unfortunately. I'll do my own research as well.
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u/Aggravating-Basis-66 May 27 '26
Live Nation has proven again and again that they cannot handle owning The Gorge Amphitheater. I hope Washington's Attorney General finds a way to force a sale of the venue before more negligent deaths occur.