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Electric Daisy Carnival Responds to Las Vegas Deaths

Rep says tragedies will not keep the festival out of the city

Electric Daisy Carnival
Steven Lawton/FilmMagic
June 18, 2012 4:55 PM ET

Organizers of the Electric Daisy Carnival say the deaths of two people who attended last week's rave in Las Vegas will not endanger future plans to hold the event in the city, the Associated Press reports.

Both deaths connected to the Carnival happened in the hours immediately after the party ended early on Monday, June 11th. A 31-year-old man was struck by a truck after leaving the event, and University of Arizona pre-med student Emily McCaughan died after falling from the 27th floor of her hotel. McCaughan reportedly suffered paranoid delusions after taking ecstasy, and the man was allegedly drunk at the time of his death.

"We are deeply saddened by the two tragedies that occurred last week in Las Vegas outside Electric Daisy Carnival," festival spokeswoman Erika Raney said in a statement. "The two tragedies occurred beyond the festival's walls as well as beyond Insomniac's control and these incidents will not threaten the future of EDC in Las Vegas."

Though Raney notes in her statement that the Carnival is a safe environment with a full medical facility and extensive security, the electronic dance music festival has had some history with revelers dying in connection to the event. The Carnival was shunned by the city of Los Angeles after a 15-year-old girl died from a drug overdose at a 2010 event there, and a teenager died at the rave's stop in Dallas last year.

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