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.''