As we all know, dance music is big business in North America at the moment, but not everyone is happy about it. With the boom of electronic festivals in Los Angeles and beyond has come protest from some corners about the ‘dangers of rave’. Much of the attention has been centred on Electric Daisy Carnival, the immense flagship event from LA promoters Insomniac, following the death of a festivalgoer in 2010.

This week in the Los Angeles Times, Insomniac founder Pasquale Rotella has returned fire with an editorial titled ‘Don’t Trample The Electric Daisy’, which you can read in full here. In the editorial, Rotella addresses the media’s reaction to the Hollywood street party gone bad, as well as panic around drugs and the safety of dance festivals.

“The media and some public officials have had plenty of bad things to say about the Electric Daisy Carnival, and a lot of it can be summed up by the word ‘rave’,” Rotella writes. “But this isn’t 1993, and Insomniac, which produces EDC, isn’t throwing parties in warehouses with no rules and no security.”

Rotella calls for “a dose of perspective”, stressing that these festivals are “multi-million dollar productions” run by experienced professionals. “Kids dancing in crazy outfits to music that editorial page editors don’t understand aren’t automatically evil,” reads one paragraph. “Insomniac’s events aren’t meant to be staid performances. When you buy a ticket to our events, you are not going to be sitting in your assigned seat and leaving when the house lights come up two hours later. You’re buying an experience, one filled with extremely talented musicians and state-of-the-art effects.”

Even from the distance of Australia, it’s an interesting read that sums up the current atmosphere over there. Meanwhile, dance music just keeps on growing Stateside.