Should State permit it to be seen as a place of party animals in their hunt for tourism footfalls?
It may look bizarre that Goa is opposed to a music festival. For the first time, the Hindu Jan Jagaran Samiti and the Shaxtti activists are on the same page, while the Chief Minister believes that the music festival has put Goa on a global cultural map. There is a governmental push for the annual Sunburn. The industry bodies are all for it, but the locals are fearlessly opposed to it as it gives Goa a new identity as a party destination. Goa is known for a blend of Indian and Western dances with a dominant Western musical scene, creatively combining the Eastern and Western cultures.
Music and dance always add spice to life. Parties make life fun-filled for young and old as music and dance create an energetic and vibrant atmosphere. Dance, in particular, is seen as entertainment and also a way to get in shape. Dance as a form of art expresses emotions, thoughts, and messages. It’s a great physical activity requiring discipline, coordination, and practice. Dance and music are not only forms of entertainment but great pillars of our culture.
What is rave? Rave is ‘talking as though one is delirious’, and how do the young get delirious? Narcotics like ecstasy (MDMA) enhance their sensations and boost their energy for long hours of dancing. It started at Ibiza, a Mediterranean island where the British youth holidayed in the early eighties, at which time rave music originated in the US. American acid house reached England and a new cultural movement started globally. In 1987, ecstasy (MDMA) became popular in English clubs. By the 1990s, raves were huge events with thousands of people. Ecstasy is central to all-night dance parties, encouraging movement and sensuality. Long hours of dancing are fuelled by ecstasy (MDMA), LSD, and other drugs, making dance music and narcotics into what we call a rave party. Rave parties are festivals of music, dance, and drugs.
Traditional rave parties were all-night dance parties featuring electronic dance music. Loud music, laser lights, fog machines, dim lights, and packed dance floors are integral features of such parties which last for 24 hours to three days. Do traditional rave parties resemble Sunburn, an international music festival in Goa? The government claims no drugs will be sold at Sunburn. Which officer can monitor for narcotics when the organisers sell tickets before permissions?
Deaths of the young are another feature of such parties. In December 2019, three tourists died after collapsing at Sunburn EDM in Goa. The Goa culture minister, Govind Gaude, said nobody forced them to come, indicating how much we care for the young. Opposition to such a festival comes from past memories.
The death of the young in advanced countries like the UK and US led to media, public, and political pressure on the police to act. The death of Janet Mayes, a 21-year-old woman who took two ecstasy tablets, led to the UK Sun paper calling for ‘evil acid barons’ to be shot. That led to the passing of the Entertainments (Increased Penalties) Bill, known as the Bright Bill, in England, which increased penalties for illegal parties and promoters. The ravers got around the law by broadcasting event details at the last minute on pirate radio stations until Castlemorton Common in Worcestershire hosted the biggest illegal rave, leading to the biggest mass arrest in British history. This led to the UK passing the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which gave the police the power to shut down any nocturnal open-air gathering of more than a hundred people at which amplified music was played. The police could stop vehicles within 5 miles of a rave and turn them away.
To protect public health and safety and uphold societal values, the USA brought the Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act (RAVE) 2002, renamed the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, passed in 2003. Two deaths in the town of Viterbo, Italy, led to outlawing rave parties in Italy, with the Decreto Anti-Rave punishing organisers with up to six years in jail.
The Western world, generally known for its liberal atmosphere, and England, in particular, with its traditional British decency, were not expected to bring in laws which could be seen as against basic rights and freedom by liberal standards. Hard cases give bad laws, and these laws, to deal with drug-driven madness in the young, were certainly hard cases.
A review article in the Indian Council of Medical Research Journal claims that foreigners are peddling LSD, ecstasy, and cocaine at various parties in Mumbai and Bangalore. Himachal’s Kullu Valley is known for Full Moon Night Jungle Parties where Israelis, most of them from the frazzle of military service, dance all night smoking hashish. According to ICMR, monitoring drugs is very difficult as they continue to evolve and be modified. ICMR claims that the elite upper class in India has massively taken to ecstasy and clubbing with women in large numbers.
The draconian laws may not have vanquished the raves in the developed world, but have certainly pushed them underground and made them as private as possible. As against that, the so-called music festivals are promoted as international events to build the tourism potential of Goa. Deaths from overdose of narcotics and heat stroke from a combination of factors like narcotics, dehydration, and overawed atmosphere is a known feature of rave parties. Should Goa permit it to be seen as a place of party animals in their hunt for tourism footfalls? Let us not pass on psychedelic music which makes our young delirious as a matrix of a new lifestyle. Goa has better things to offer.
