Pubdate: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 Source: Mercury, The (Australia) Copyright: News Limited 2000 Contact: 93 Macquarie Street, Hobart, Tasmania 7000 Australia Fax: (03) 62 300 711 Website: http://www.themercury.com.au/ Author: Betty Barnacle, OFFICIALS WANT WILD PARTIES STOPPED `Rave' Problem: Police Arrested 8 At The Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. Two Santa Clara County supervisors called for action Tuesday to prevent a repeat of the rave party that spun out of control at the Santa Clara County fairgrounds Sunday and sent emergency medical service personnel scrambling. Supervisor Blanca Alvarado, whose district includes the fairgrounds, vowed to do her best to close down such parties on public property. ``I'm absolutely outraged and so are the parents of the community that this kind of thing is allowed on county property,'' Alvarado said. ``It's unacceptable. The bottom line is I'm going to try to close (such rave parties) down. We've worked too hard for a family atmosphere at the fairgrounds for this to happen.'' Declaring she already has ``put the wheels in motion,'' Alvarado said she has called for a thorough investigation and consulted with the county counsel's office about ``our legal rights '' to stop such parties. Meanwhile, Supervisor Pete McHugh called on both the county executive and sheriff to make a complete report on the weekend ruckus, including recommendations to prevent such incidents. The Saturday night event that lasted until 6 a.m. Sunday was marked by two stabbings, numerous drug overdoses and a melee at the gate when deputies turned away 500 to 600 partygoers at 12:30 a.m. Sunday, the sheriff's office said. One man was arrested on suspicion of possessing ``ecstasy,'' an amphetamine derivative that produces feelings of euphoria, and other controlled substances for sale. Art Troyer, executive director of the Fair Management Corp. which operates the fairgrounds, said Tuesday that he already has informed promoters of the party -- Coolworld of Alameda -- that they will have to make changes in their operations before similar shows can be held at the Tully Road fairgrounds. ``We need the money,'' Troyer said, noting that the fairgrounds made slightly more than $100,000 from parking and concessions at the event. ``But some things are more important than money.'' Troyer, Jean Hardwicke of the county Fire Marshall's office and Chris Yuen of Coolworld all said independently that there was some confusion in details of the incident given out by the sheriff's office Monday. The limit of people at the party was set at 20,000, not 10,000 to 12,000 cited by the sheriff's spokesman said, according to Troyer, Hardwicke and Yuen. Hardwicke also said the fire marshal had ordered ticket sales to be stopped at the gate when the agreed 20,000 attendance was reached. She also said there was no tent at Coolworld's April fairgrounds event and that Saturday's party wasn't shut down at 6 a.m. but had been scheduled to run until then. Troyer said he told the Coolworld representative Tuesday that the fairgrounds is public-owned property governed by an entity that expects higher standards than in a private event. Alvarado said she also is concerned about the public health and safety issues of such events. ``I'm amazed nothing worse happened,'' she said, noting youngsters all over the world learn about rave events on the Internet. Troyer argued that the event wasn't as bad as the sheriff's reports made it seem. ``Out of 20,000 kids, there were eight arrests,'' he said. ``Something always happens at any large event. I don't want to minimize what happened but if you've ever been to a Giants-Dodgers game, you can really see crowds out of control.'' ``The crowd as a whole was well-behaved. There were just a few bad apples,'' he said, pointing out that Coolworld has had other events at the fairgrounds since last year without any such troubles. ``The problem is you can't have all-night events. You have to have reasonable hours like 7 to midnight,'' he said. ``These (all-nighters) are really popular with the kids. But we don't want to be part of the problem.'' - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk