LAS VEGAS — A 24-year-old California man died Saturday morning at the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, the latest in a series of deaths at the electronic music festival in recent years.
The victim, identified as Montgomery Tsang of San Leandro, collapsed in the Las Vegas Motor Speedway parking lot and was pronounced dead shortly after 6 a.m., according to a report in The Las Vegas Sun.
A spokeswoman for Insomniac, the company that stages the festival, confirmed the death in a statement issued Saturday, but said the show would continue through its scheduled end on Monday.
“Today we learned some very tragic news, that after attending the festival a guest of the show has passed away. We are deeply saddened by this news, and hope that everyone will join us in keeping his family and friends in their thoughts during this very difficult time,” the statement read. “Dance music fans pride themselves in being part of a loving community and, as we get ready to start the second night of the show, we ask everyone to help us keep this event safe.”
Calls and e-mails to the Clark County, Nev., coroner’s office and Las Vegas Police Department were not returned.
Saturday night, the mood outside the Marquee, a club where festivalgoers gather for pre-concert partying, was still vibrant. Most people in the crowd didn’t seem to be aware of Tsang’s death.
James Nguyen, 25, came to the festival from Houston and was going to attend Saturday night’s show as planned. “People just need to learn to be responsible,” he said. “Everyone’s here for the music and they need to take care of themselves.”
EDC, once home to a fringe group of electronic music fans, has ballooned into a national event since it was founded in Los Angeles in 1999. A 15-year-old girl died of an ecstasy overdose at the event in 2010, ultimately leading to the move to Las Vegas. Two people also died at the 2012 installment there.
Insomniac is not the only backer of electronic music festivals to grapple with deaths and injuries. The final day of New York City’s 2013 Electric Zoo festival, by Made Events, was canceled after two people died and four were hospitalized.
