For some reason, the banishment of kandi from Diplo’s Mad Decent Block Party has caused quite a stir among ravers. The quintessential raver’s uniform has been a part of the scene for years and now that it is being associated with drugs, people are mad. In an effort to respond to unhappy ravers, Diplo made a public statement –
So… I never wear Kandi and I understand it’s not drug related culture inherently .. We just had serious issues with kids hiding it .. and there was a definite relationship between safety and security and made it so we had to ban certain items. We have teamed up w dancesafe .. Cooperated w police and medics to really handle the last three parties and We have set up free water stations at all the mdbp .. All I care about is people coming to enjoy music and have a safe and good time.. Everything else is secondary .. I would trade 100 thousand angry ravers to have 100% safe and happy street parties when we started it on philly 6 years ago
So it’s all good if your into whatever your into we just implement these rules for you.. Not against you … This is just a simple set of rules we are using to make things safer… I’m sorry of they affect you or keep you from coming..All over the world kids and woman getting killed right now over beliefs, this is silly to get angry over .. If it bothers you just don’t attend I’m down for anything positive but this doesn’t affect our parties too much … Im not the promoter, I actually had nothing to do with the rules being implemented but i do agree with my team.. And cause of who I am.. I’m the de facto speaker.. I have thick skin so u guys that consider yourself plur can attack me all you want it doesn’t bother me.. I’m just here for the music.
The issue now is that Dancesafe responded saying that they had not been allowed access to the Philadelphia MDBP site and were concerned about the distribution of their literature.
@diplo Your management told us we weren't allowed to hand out literature on drugs and alcohol. We haven't been onsite! Can you advocate?
— DanceSafe (@DanceSafe) August 14, 2014
As of 4:45 today though, it seems that everything has been sorted out.
We are working to build a relationship with @maddecent. @diplo didn't lie. They just won't let us distribute our literature on drugs.
— DanceSafe (@DanceSafe) August 14, 2014
However, this speaks quite a bit to Diplo’s and Mad Decent’s approach to their festivities. If they don’t even know what’s going on with their own safety precautions, how can they think that banning kandi will solve anything?
