It is common knowledge around these parts that Lebanon is the heart of EDM in the Middle-East for several reasons; here are some:
The local law enforcement agencies and the army are not very well equipped in human force and in militarily as well. So by consequence you get less law enforcement and more freedom :D Of course, we all prefer less law enforcement and much more freedom; but what happens when the freedom gets really out of hand? Where does the boundary between freedom and ethics lie in an EDM scene?
As far as Lebanon is concerned, until last year when I got involved I had been noticing a major increase in people being wasted, I mean totally wasted! Younger and younger kids are being affected, I mean I have even seen 7 yrs' old jumping on speakers at 11:00 am on a Sunday Afterhours morning! I have heard about youngsters pupping up to 35 pills of extacy in 1 fu***ing single night!!! And I don't wana talk about the other "surrounding" chemicals such as Special K, GHB or GBL...there you may find common gossips or stories about chicks waking up in someone's bed after being raped all night long without even knowing it......disgusting!
That has even affected the clubbers musically, I mean seriously, now clubbers would dance to anything without being selective in music, its all that amount of drugs pumping up their brains!!! Damn, you could even throw a pan down the stairs and have the clubbers dance on its ding-dong noise!!! I have even seen ravers dance edm on ARABIC music...Hellooooooooooo!!!!
I have gone out the local scene since a while now, and still when an EDM concert takes place in Beirut, I always get feedbacks on how the evening went: The quality of the crowd (kids, minors, majors...), the presence of the cops (and busts), the performance of the star DJ, and local DJs, the promoters' job as well etc etc... I am a DJ, so I always get the picture first hand.
Last weekend, I had a couple of friends over who brought me the latest news on the Tiesto (fiesto) concert. I mean I donno how this guy makes it, but every time he spins in a concert, he breaks all kinds of records in attendees, I mean by the tens of thousands...whereas DJs like Lawler, for instance, would barely pass the 5000!! I still can't figure that out! Anyway, I was told that during that concert where at least 15.000 attended many huge fights broke up at several stages and times during the event. The law enforcement couldn't intervene coz they were not in good number or well equipped, and by consequence massacres happened: it turned from an EDM concert into a huge fighting browl. A fight is ugly no matter where it happens, but it is even uglier here because of the Lebanese degree of violence, they are (unfortunately) "good" at it when it comes to that....they are angry!
So now we are hearing the minister of interior and the minister of defense planning to forbid the EDM scene, or at least crack it down badly: They wana shut down all night clubs and pubs by no later than 03:00 am (right now there are no laws concerning this at all, its a 24/7 hour partying). So here you go: our twist of liberty getting sized down big time.
In a way, I am happy about this decision, because really when you see all these young generations literally getting eaten by chemicals, it really breaks your heart...
I am not gona mention how many casualties we have on the roads due to car accidents on a weekly basis....I
Lately the US have donated those super latest cop cars to the Lebanese police, I mean those latest machines you would think you're living in the MadMax era, and yet no cops are to be seen around during the night! So, get your latest BMW on your way out of a club pupped with all kinda stuff, and go for a ride on a the highways: let that counter hit 220+km/h and nobody will even blink an eye at you! I mean where are we going like this....!?
Yes, since things got that far and really out of hand, I think that freedom is totally being abused at the expense of many lives...yes in this case EDM should be drastically resized to a minimum; That is my opinion.