Global Dance Festival, one of Denver's largest annual gatherings for electronic dance music (EDM) listeners, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this weekend at Empower Field.
Festivals like it have become places where festgoers share psychedelic art, dress in colorful jogger pants and wrap themselves in a versatile pashmina. Given that you'll be dancing the whole time you're there, there are a few things to keep in mind, from what to wear, to what your body needs and how to stay safe.
First there's the fashion element.
"The absolute pinnacle of current festival EDM fashion is the pashmina," said Patrick Dowis, owner of metaphysical, crystal and festival fashion clothing store The Headspace on Broadway. "Hands down, 100%, pashminas are where it's at. We'll sell hundreds of them outside of an event."
These colorful scarves aren't just sought after for their designs, but more importantly for their festival functionality.
"You can use it for shade," said Jesse Taenzer, owner of Pair O' Dimes festival fashion boutique in Five Points. "You can get it wet and use it as a cooling device. You can wrap it around yourself real tight and use it for warmth at night. Pashminas literally save lives."
Then there's what you -- as a person with physical needs -- should plan for and not forget about while you're having fun.
Global Dance recommends that festival goers do five things to be safe over the weekend: drink lots of water, bring versatile clothing for all types of weather, eat well, wear comfortable shoes and look out for one another.
For longtime Denver EDM festival hustlers like Dowis and Taenzer, ravewear isn't just about its intricate designs. There's a real thought behind how functional an article of clothing can be after standing out in the sun for seven or more hours.
The Headspace opened its physical location nearly five years ago and Pair O'Dimes opened six years ago. Fashion festival stores like these have become hubs for EDM fans across the city to peruse through for their next music experience fit.
"A lot of this stuff is made to be super flexible and easy to dance in," Dowis said.
"There's also options like these bamboo natural fiber dresses, which are good for fire spinning," Dowis said, pointing to a velvet dress on a rack. "You don't want to use polyester because that can melt to your skin. But these natural fibers are a lot more safe because it's going to burn off instead."
"This is a bomber vest and it has a pocket to be able to put a water bottle or CamelBak into," Taenzer said, holding up a black space armour vest in the center rack of clothes. "It's a wearable version of your backpack. Hydration is so important when you're going really hard, you're dancing for like seven hours at a time."
And while the focus is on having fun while taking in the glitz and glimmer of an EDM festival, it's important to keep safety in mind.
This year, at Global Dance Festival's Vendor Village, Keep The Party Safe, a drug awareness campaign, will be offering free Naloxone, a medication designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdoses. They will also be teaching festival goers how to identify an overdose, how to administer Naloxone and offer other helpful information that could help save a friend's life from inside of their black tent with neon lettering.
AEG Presents: Rocky Mountains partnered with Keep The Party Safe to educate festival goers about the risk of fentanyl contaminated recreational drugs.
"We started this campaign in response to the Fentanyl crisis," said Program Manager Hilary Bryant. "We want to ensure that people enjoy this experience responsibly, that they know the risks and that we create a safe space to have these discussions."
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is considered to be 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. It can be mixed into other drugs like cocaine, meth, MDMA and heroin according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The partnership will run through April 2024 and since its inception on May 9 they have distributed nearly 1,000 doses of Naloxone to concertgoers in the Denver area.
"We always want our fans to be safe," said Tara McGovern, Marketing Director for Global Dance Festival. "[The partnership] allows our fans to get more information, especially for our younger fans that aren't as aware."
According to the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention, who help coordinate the state's response to the opioid crisis, there were 920 Coloradans who died from a fentanyl-involved overdose in 2022. Their early 2023 data shows those numbers are still going up in Denver.
"What we're finding is that the nature of the opioid crisis is changing," said Dr. Robert Valuck, Executive Director of Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse.
Most exposures to the opioid are from illicitly manufactured and distributed product such as Xanax bars that are 100% fentanyl or a powder-like cocaine that's actually made of lactose and fentanyl. These counterfeits are flooding the market, even shows at Red Rocks.
"It's made to look like whatever someone thinks they want to buy," Valuck said. "We have almost 2,000 drug overdoses a year in Colorado, about half involve fentanyl. I think people know that fentanyl is out there. I don't think they realize it's right here next to you."
EDM concerts and festivals have long had a reputation for drug overdoses and citations.
A Denverite analysis of Red Rocks concerts from 2014 to 2017 showed that EDM concerts had the most citations issued than any other genre of music.
"Where are large numbers of people that would potentially be at risk for fentanyl exposure?" Valuck said. "We know from talking to police, EMS and hospital folks that these things happen at concerts and music festivals."
Taenzer, who says is a proponent of going to shows sober, did have some advice for those that wish to consume recreational drugs.
"Start off small and give yourself the time to actually feel the ways that these different substances are going to make you feel," Taenzer said. "People will end up consuming a lot more than they actually need in order to have an altered change of consciousness. You can always eat more, you can't eat less."
"If you make these choices, be safe," Valuck said. "Have these tools so that you can save your friend's life and they can save your life."
For Bryant, who has been out at shows distributing Naloxone, there's hope in that the EDM community does what it can to look out for one another. Most recently, she credits Australian rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard for personally requesting their services at an AEG show.
"They specifically requested a harm reduction organization at their show," Bryant said. "We already had a partnership with AEG so it was really cool to be able to step in. We were shouting "Free Naloxone, get your Naloxone here!" and people would stop in their tracks and ask us if we were serious. Everyone is so happy that we're there. People are grateful that they feel like their lives matter."
