After this weekend’s annual HARD Summer Music Festival, many people are taking to social media to voice their opinions and concerns over this year’s iteration. Three people have been declared dead following Saturday and Sunday, and more have been reported to have been transported to nearby hospitals.
One individual on Reddit claiming to have worked as an EMT for EDC says that he was unhappy with how medical teams at HARD were supplied and prepared for the festival.
He wrote:
Man, that was bad. Last year I was a massive fan of the venue and lineup, and had a ton of fun. This year, not so much. The layout was absolutely awful, and the medical staff didn’t seem to be on par with what was needed. Let me put things into perspective about what EDC did versus what hard did medical wise:
All medics and EMTs carried a jump bag with supplies, and drugs. For instance, a drug called Versed can stop seizures (something that I saw quite often this weekend). NONE of the staff walking around had any drug boxes on them, as told to me by one of the medics who assessed a friend of mine. Also, at EDC we had 3 medical tents: Main medical, right medical, and left medical. Each place, had IV supplies, TONS of bags of fluid for us to give IVs and drugs, and other necessities. I would have people walk in to me, I would give them an IV, they feel better, and walk out and go enjoy the show. HARD ONLY had supplies at main medical, making the other medical tents virtually useless.
I usually don’t bitch about things like this, but I’ve never seen worse planning than this, and it frustrates me, especially since a lot of these heat related illnesses and sicknesses could have been avoided.
Another attendee in the comments described his experience trying to get treated for mild heat sickness.
We did not have a chance to examine any of the medical areas at the festival, so we can’t know for certain the degree to which HARD prepared for this weekend, though we cannot imagine that any corners were cut intentionally.
