The three people who died at the Hard Summer rave in Fontana this summer all suffered from drug overdoses, the San Bernardino County Coroner’s Office announced Wednesday.
Derek Lee, 22, of San Francisco and Alyssa Dominguez, 21, of San Diego died early July 31 and Roxanne Ngo, 22, of Chino Hills died Aug. 1, all due to “acute methylenedioxymethamphetamine toxicity,” according to coroner officials.
Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA, is also known as Ecstasy.
The coroner’s officer announcement comes a day after Insomniac, the promoters who organize Hard Summer, released their lineup for Audio on the Bay to be held Jan. 14 and 15 in Richmond.
The three festival-goers attended the summer rave during the last weekend in July at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.
During this year’s Hard Summer Music Festival, there were a total of nine medical transports from the event and more than 300 people were arrested, sheriff’s officials said. Most of those arrests were for public intoxication, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
This year marked the first time the festival was held at the Auto Club Speedway after negative attention following deaths at raves in Pomona sent organizers looking for a new venue.
On Aug. 1, 2015, two young people — Katie Dix, 19, of Camarillo and Tracy Nguyen, 18, of West Covina — died of what authorities say were drug overdoses during the first day of the Hard Summer festival at Pomona Fairplex. Their families have since sued the promoter, the Los Angeles County Fair Association, the private company that provided security and the city of Pomona.
According to L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis, the Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center treated nearly 30 people who attended last year’s festival for alcohol- and drug-related ailments.
Since the death of Joshua Johnson, 18, of El Cajon in 2006, there have been seven drug-related deaths associated with electronic music festivals in San Bernardino County.
