www.usatoday.com: Drones and more armed security will be employed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival to help to prevent the kind of horrific attack that left 58 people dead at a Las Vegas music festival in in October.
Goldenvoice president and CEO Paul Tollett says a planned increase in armed security is proportionate with the festival’s growth and changes in society.
6 comments:
As much as I’m vehemently against the culture of Coachella, I am extremely glad to see new security measures being taken to prevent an attack similar to the Las Vegas one. I agree with the assertion that one of the biggest steps that needs to be taken in order to ensure people’s well-being and safety is planning in advance. Many of these technological devices being used during the festival such as drones and especially the wristbands implemented with a tracker chip seem like something directly from the future, or out of an episode of Black Mirror. Knowing where festival goers are at any point in time is a bit of a scary concept, yet I’m willing to compromise a lot of my privacy nowadays in light of all the recent mass shootings in this country. It’s an interesting debate on where this technology will have to go in the future, and whether people will be willing or not to comply with it.
I completely support this idea to create a drone controlled security measure. The argument against drones is usually that it is an invasion of privacy, but when you're walking into a music festival, you pretty much give up all rights to having any privacy. In the past couple of years, music festivals have become one of America's biggest money makers, biggest security events, and sadly one of America's biggest risks. There are a lot of places to hide or do drugs within a music festival, the managers know that and anyone that's been to FYF, Coachella, Outside Lands, or any other popular festival can tell you that its not that hard, these drones aren't made to stop a teenager with a joint, instead it aims to combat and protect its patrons from the incredibly present gun violence issue that plagues mass events everywhere. These measures shouldn't ruin anyones festival experience, but rather make it enjoyable knowing that the problem has been acknowledged and that there is an entire team of people and robots that are helping to keep them safe.
Though Drones were clearly the clickbait in the headline, this article is really informative about what Coachella is doing to protect its patron. Making sure that everyone is safe by preventing catastrophes and lessening the causality if one happen is extremely important. Hopefully other festivals, concerts, and big public events will start to include measures similar. That being said, this event seems like an unlikely one for drones. Though in the future it may be more feasible, currently the restrictions on a drone’s mobility seems to great. I was surprised that Marshall does not want guests to be aware of the fact that safety is of such a concern. I would have expected that giving people a low level awareness of their surroundings would help prevent an attack. Though I’m not surprised that security wants the guests to be more focused on their enjoyment, I would have thought that an increased presence would make guests feel safer.
I am not certain how to feel about this. Coachella is an event that, against popular opinion, I tend not to support as enthusiastically, but it is a place that, being from California, many of my friends absolutely live for. My sister was in a hotel on the strip, when the Vegas attack occurred, and, since then, I have thought a lot about what would’ve happened if she had been at the festival and about the safety measures at every other festival. I hear so many stories about people hopping fences to avoid buying tickets, which means that a lot of security is being rendered useless to a population present at these events. On principle, I find drones invasive and a bit creepy, and I am certain that this will disrupt the attendance and vibe of these events, if strategies like drones continue to be used. I think this is an interesting way to approach a problem, and I wonder how effective this is.
It is really relieving that so many measures are being taken to prevent further loss of life at these easily targetable events. While I do not understand exactly why people are being creeped out by the drones, maybe a fear of futurism, I think the new measures of security are pretty cool ideas. I also think it is hard to hear news like this and not picture some crazy thing like the drones are doing all of the security, mostly because out of security reasons the event runners cannot disclose the actual security plans. I think drones are a great idea for event safety when it comes to surveillance because unlike officers and security guards, they don’t have to fight through the crowds and manually locate the troubled area. I personally would not mind drones at any outdoor event I attend, to me they would be like less invasive news helicopters.
I found this article extremely fascinating and personally, I liked it. Safety is becoming one of the biggest factors in planning large scale events. I am definitely a believer in the adage "better safe than sorry" so I always tend to want to be over vigilant. I know many people are freaked out by drones, but ultimately they are not there to patrol us but rather to stay aware of holistic scope. I am definitely one who is horrified by the 1984 Big Brother that may be coming, but frankly I'm more concerned about the presence of a shooter at large events. I don't think that makes surveillance any less weird, but if it has the possibility save one life, I cannot let my fear of robot take over stand in the way. For me, what I found more creepy was the fact that all the bracelets had trackers in them so the safety team can see where people are concentrated. Furthermore, I thought the article's mention that private security and first responders should be in-touch and corresponding was really good to hear. As they said too, planning is the most important part of creating a safe environment. I think a lot of the techniques implemented in Coachella are things that can be used in smaller scale within theatre events.
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