The Mad Decent Block Party, an early August music festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion, resulted in two deaths and nineteen hospitalizations, most of them assumed to be drug-related. As a result, concert promoters are taking a hard stand against… colorful bracelets?
As the Baltimore Sun reports, concert promoters Mad Decent have decided to ban “kandi bracelets,” colorful homemade beaded bracelets. According to ClubGlow.com, kandi “has come to represent a kindness that brings the rave community closer by being a conversation starter that can double as a gift.” Concert-goers trade bracelets back and forth or give them to friends. They use beads to spell out the names of their favorite artists, or other significant words. More from Club Glow:
One of the most important parts of the ‘kandi’ culture is the process of gifting and the term PLUR (peace, love, unity, respect). It’s a handshake that signifies acceptance.
1. Two people make peace signs (Peace)
2. They form their hands into hearts (Love)
3. They join their hearts (Unity)
4. They slide their bracelets from hand to hand (Respect)
4.a. Hug someone.
So why ban this seemingly harmless (although, um, kind of silly) fashion statement? According to the Sun, the bracelets are also associated with rave drug culture; dealers can use bracelets to signify what they’re selling. Colorful beads can also help dealers smuggle pills past security.
At future shows, Mad Decent is also banning masks, laser pointers, pacifiers, LED gloves, stickers, stuffed animals, and eyedrops. Oh yeah, and drugs.
