HARD Day of the Dead will take place this weekend in LA, but you won’t officially see or hear anything about it in the media. The annual Halloween festival thrown by HARD Presents (Holy Ship, HARD Summer), owned by Live Nation, has enacted a 100% media blackout, refusing access to all press affiliates – writers, photographers and videographers.
Though no official reason has been provided, widespread speculation is that Live Nation is doing some preliminary damage control. Last year’s deaths of two teenage girls, ages 18 and 19, prompted the conglomerate to increase the age of attendance to 21+, and reduce the venue capacity to 40,000. Their asses are on the line right now with the LAPD, and they can’t afford any negative publicity.
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However, if they think refusing access to press will prevent disorderly conduct at the festival from getting out to the public, they are severely mistaken. In this day of social media dominance and the abundance of immediate, real-time sharing of information, keeping everything contained is simply impossible. Even Burning Man, forsaking its principles, finds itself all over the Internet today. Moreover, whereas the media could be controlled with policies implemented to ensure their content remains aligned with the festival’s brand, what the public posts is 100% at their discretion, not that of the festival.
Further, this rule fares poorly for the artists, who rely largely on press coverage to build their brand. The artists themselves are even prevented from bringing in their own camera crews, so you won’t see any festival recaps or aftermovies from these guys.
Undoubtedly, whatever goes down at HARD Day of the Dead this weekend will get documented, some way or another.
The festival will take place this weekend with well-known acts such as Deadmau5, Hot Chip, Nero, Flying Lotus, Future, Skrillex, Gesaffelstein, Glass Animals, and A$AP Ferg. Check out the full lineup here.
[H/T Thump]