Electric Forest, the annual four-day electronic music festival, brought in large crowds, an array of musicians and a fleet of Michigan State Police troopers.
The event, held in Rothbury, Mich., from June 27-30, resulted in 43 felony drug charges, 13 misdemeanor charges and one death, according to Michigan State Police, or MSP, Lt. Jeff White. MSP released the crime statistics to the public last week.
“We mobilized with quite a few troopers, and (some) were undercover,” White said. “(This) is typical in the manner of arrests. Certain drugs, like weed, and things like that, are pretty darn common and will allow a person’s testimony (to be) backed up by a simple on-sight test.”
Throughout the festival, troopers investigated 55 complaints and put 16 people in the Oceana County Jail. This included five larcenies, three assaults, one resisting and obstructing and four drug charges. MSP also is investigating the death of Joseph Budd Norris, a 21-year-old Portage, Mich., resident, who collapsed on the first day of the festival. Foul play isn’t thought to be at fault, but the toxicology results have not yet been completed to determine his cause of death.
Of the 55 complaints, the Oceana County Prosecutor has completed 19 warrants. The rest of the warrants are awaiting lab reports in order to confirm details of the drug usage, according to Oceana County Prosecutor Joseph Bizon. Punishments vary depending on the type of drug taken, Bizon said.
“Generally what we see out of festivals are people with not as much of a record as most because of their age,” Bizon said. “(Many) of the offenders are lower range sentences; we don’t really have a lot of people going to jail. Every case is a little different.”
A few hours away from Rothbury, Lansing will be hosting its annual Common Ground Music Festival, which begins today, featuring a variety of artists ranging from Ludacris to MGMT. In order to keep danger at bay, Lansing police will be present at the seven-day event, according to Lansing police Sgt. Guy Pace.
A Common Ground Music Festival representative was unavailable for comment on the matter.
Recent MSU graduate Kyle McGahey, who attended Electric Forest both this year and last year, noticed a larger presence of state troopers at the event. Although McGahey and his group didn’t partake in any drug usage themselves, McGahey said they did see many other people using and selling drugs.
“I would definitely go back,” McGahey said. “My group (was) pretty safe, so the drug usage doesn’t bother me since it doesn’t pertain to us.”
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
