Beyond Wonderland 2023 Shooting: The Dance Music Community Reacts
Electronic artists are responding after a shooting that took place this past Saturday night (June 17) at Beyond Wonderland at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Wash., leaving two dead and three others injured.
The incident happened on the first day of the two day event, around 8:30 p.m. local time when a gunman opened fire in the festival’s camping area. Two people were killed and three others were injured before the gunman was apprehended by authorities.
On Monday (June 19), Pasquale Rotella — the founder and CEO of Beyond Wonderland producer Insomniac Events — added further details about the shooting, writing that “it is our understanding that the incident stemmed from an isolated situation that escalated, leading the assailant to flee the area. An officer involved-shooting then occurred to neutralize the event.”
Rotella also noted that the festival was kept going during and after the incident at the request of law enforcement “to ensure the majority of attendees stayed away from the campground area where the incident took place. Our staff worked in close coordination with local authorities to secure the area, while also preserving it for investigators to conduct their work in a smaller, isolated section.”
The second day of the festival was canceled following the shooting. The weekend’s lineup included Kaskade and deadmau5 performing as Kx5, Marshmello, Afrojack and other electronic music artists.
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Several artists who were performing or were meant to perform over the weekend — including Marshmello, Afrojack, Kaleena Zanders, Dillon Francis, Hannah Wants, Ray Volpe, Malaa and Subtronics — have made statements regarding the shooting on social media, along with other figures and brands from the global dance music community. See these statements below.
Mass Shooting Tracker lists the Beyond Wonderland shooting as the 358th mass shooting to happen in the United States in 2023. A GoFundMe has been set up for one of the survivors of the shooting.
Katie Bain
Billboard
