We’ve heard of some sketchy shit going down at festivals before, but if the police blotter from last weekend’s Furthur Festival is to be believed, a few bad apples took things to a shocking new level at Mountain Aire.
Try this passage on for size…
Inside the fairgrounds a mother had overdosed on controlled substances while her 3 year old child was attached to her with a leash type device. Reportedly the child took its clothes off to get away from her mother. The mother was hospitalized and the child was taken into protective custody. While at the hospital the mother had to be restrained as she was combative and attempted to bite and injure hospital staff.
That’s some great parenting right there. What the fuck!?!?
There’s plenty of other disturbing items of interest in the report…
At the fairgrounds parking lot camping area another male reportedly under the influence of drugs cut his own throat open and was attempting to pull it apart with his own hands. That subject was flown to a regional hospital for treatment.
We know Bobby singing Jerry songs is tough to take, but good god man.
A person hit over the head with a blunt object was bleeding and seeking help and medical attention. When a person tried to report the injury he was threatened by a concert goer for reportedly being a snitch.
Since when did the Furthur scene turn into Watts circa 1965?
Early Sunday morning deputies responded to Hwy 49 outside of the fairgrounds for a naked male running on the highway banging on vehicles as they drove past. The deputy who responded had to taser the subject prior to arresting him.
All good police stories involve tasers these days, don’t they?
From reading the article it sure sounds like all hell broke loose at the Furthur Festival, but we do know how the authorities like to sensationalize these types of stories. If any of our readers attended Furthur Festival last weekend, we’d like you to comment about your experience. Did you see any of the crazy scenes described in this article? [Hat Tip – M. Quinn]
22 Responses
That mother story makes me want to cry.
I did see the kid on the leash but seemed pretty peaceful otherwise. Nothing more than any other festival we all go to. It was a great time for sure
If these reports are true this is some seriously fucked up shit.
This is the peripheral scene that bogged down the Dead themselves in their later years of touring…it shouldn’t come as any surprise but that doesn’t make it any less gruesome or discouraging
No reason to believe it’s the same woman but at All Good I saw a mother passed out next to a port-o-potty while her young son tied to a leash made of caution tape begged for change… I’m just surprised there wasn’t one mention of No2 in this article. Right on?
I wonder if this is connected to the crazy LSD stories coming out of Arcata last month.
I heard the scene was worse than the camden lot.
This is not surprising to anyone who’s been to a RatDog or “The Dead” show. Old schoolers complain en mass about the crowds at younger bands’ shows (moe., Phish, UM, etc.) but by far, the worst crowds I’ve experienced are at the hold over nostalgia act shows. It’s sad, really. And embarrassing. Comes a time when people need to stop doing drugs…especially alcohol, if that’s all they can get anymore.
that’s gotta be the arcata acid that’s making people go crazy. don’t eat anything on the west coast right now. it might be that darwinism is taking over.
I was at Furthurmore, the festival that took place after Furthur with the same people a bit down the road, and the crowd seamed tired, but nothing too crazy. I believe certain things happen when you have enough people together taking drugs….bad trips happen. usually once you have one you learn your lesson and dont take drugs any more.
as for parenting like that….lame on you.
I was there for all three days and didn’t see any of this type of stuff going down (or the other things mentioned in the police blotter.) The people I met at the various stages,in line for food, etc. were peaceful, fun-loving folks there to enjoy music. I found the security to be pretty chill. My take is that there were isolated incidents involving a few VERY out-of-control people that gave the rest of the attendees a bad name.
I saw Brian Adams open for The Stones and wanted to tear my throat out and I only had a couple beers.
“a few VERY out-of-control people that gave the rest of the attendees a bad name.”
sure. but how many other festivals do you hear about “isolated incidents” on this scale happening? just because it wasn’t everyone doing it doesn’t mean it wasn’t overall a worse scene. i’d rather be at a place where ZERO mothers get so fucked up that they ruin their child’s life forever.
We saw the incident with the mother. The kid was running around, and people were getting tangled up in the retractable leash. The leash was clipped to the girls pants, and she took them off and ran toward the stage. She didn’t get far, and others held her untill the mother got to her. We didn’t see anyone come and intervene, or any security or police come over, and the mother didn’t look like she was tripping or out of control. On Sunday, a mother came crying though our camp area and said her two year old had wandered off. We got our neighbors and started combing the area, and luckily someone found her and took her to the med tent. We saw sherrifs there shortly after that. Kids are a lifestyle choice, if it doesn’t fit your lifestyle, don’t have kids. That, and please leave the dogs at home. We saw more drama last weekend over dogs than anything else.
>We know Bobby singing Jerry songs is tough to take, but good god man.
thanks for one laugh in the midst of the heavy article.
yes, there were lots of police incidents. i was involved in one where i tried to talk a very high and disoriented guy down and he then assaulted a security guard and started banging the guy’s head against the side of the furthur bus. people i know restrained the assailant by holding his legs. when police arrived the guy decided to attack them as well.
the following day i heard about the guy slitting his throat. allegedly his girlfriend had broken up with him. ouch!
“isolated incidents involving a few VERY out-of-control people that gave the rest of the attendees a bad name.”
i was there and completely agree. don’t believe the hype, people. it was a great festival.
I was there, thankfully camped at an RV resort just down the road and a short mile or so walk away from the venue. The ticket-bearing concert crowd was all the positive things mentioned, plus a few extra drunk and/or really f*cked up people thrown into the mix. The vast majority of the negative/violent incidents occurred in the general camping lots. It was a real zoo down there, with event staff/security completely clueless and disorganized. You could tell that a lot of the officers on the scene felt over-taxed and on edge. They were trying to do the right thing, as they saw it, and keep people safe, but it just got out of hand.
Being a member of the “younger crowd” (I’m 25), I have to say that I am disappointed. The level of disrespect, agression, and violence exhibited here give not only Deadheads, but young people in general a bad name. Shame on you!
That said, fantastic festival!!! Totally worth the four days driving round trip to make it there. WOOHOO!
i was there and saw none of these incidents, in fact was one of the more chill festivals and fun i have had in a while.
Aside from drunk and wasted young idiots who NEVER saw the DEAD or Jerry as there age did not permit it, the general scene including camping was kind and smooth. I was stuck in the traffic on 49 due to the nudie boys, but overall, I DO NOT think that the furthur fest deserved any bad rap. The fucked up hippie-wanna-be tend to be irresponsible derelicts in general and are probably abusing the scene wherever they are. I left the festival feeling very satisfied and joyous. The bands all did a great job and security was respectful and reasonable everywhere I could see.
I agree w/ the above comments about isolated incidents and generally a good time. There was certainly alot of DMT users in the concert bowl. That was distracting due to the awful smell. The event production team did not receive good training, otherwise many of the problems could’ve been avoided.
I heard of bad acid from a recent newspaper from Arcadia ca, telling about a man found naked in the woods lost for days and another man cutting off his own penis.
At the furthur fest i was camped in family camp and was woken up bye a mad yelling crazy things through the camp later i herd of a man cutting his thought then i herd of a young 9 or 10 year old boy being held at the fount gate by the cops spinning on the ground yelling out of control that he is going to die. Then as we where packing up Sunday we found a friend who got lost. he must have had the bad acid because he was naked acting crazy trying to get him in the car he at first tried to jump out then later hit the driver had to get him out the the cops showed up took him to the hospital, but he never came down now he is still up there but in a mental ward now. I pray for him.
WTF! I didn’t see any of that, but if there is bad acid going around, they should have there balls cut off. Their giving Nixon a good name!