RENSSELAER COUNTY, N.Y. — State Police raided a popular trantic festival in Rensselaer County on Monday, making 19 arrests for drug sales and possession, and leaving festival organizers to wonder why they were specifically targeted.
The arrests came on the final day of Fractal Fest, an annual psychotrantic festival in Stephentown. The three-year-old annual event draws thousands from several surrounding states. Organizers tell Spectrum News that their focus is trance music, and using it to reach a peaceful, trance-like mental state.
But according to police, at least 19 people were peddling drugs to help festival-goers reach that high; all were arrested. Along with the arrests came pounds of narcotic drugs: mushrooms, cocaine, LSD, MDMA and concentrated marijuana among them. Some were packaged in colorful containers or laced in gummy bears and lollipops, and sold at a festival attended by families and children.
"This weekend, our priority was not only to enforce the laws of our state — but also to save lives," said state police Lt. Christopher Gilroy on Tuesday. "Events such as this tend to draw individuals that are in the market to distribute and possess controlled substances."
Fractal Fest organizers took issue with that targeted approach, and walked right into Tuesday's news conference to ask why police crashed their festival.
"All I know is that we were taken extremely by surprise," said event co-organizer Kyle Rober. "We don't sell alcohol. We don't condone people being intoxicated. We actively promote sobriety, health and wellness."
Fractal Fest employs a volunteer staff of monitors and a paid security force to watch for suspicious activity.
The negative publicity has Rober and his associates worried that their festival grounds will be taken away, and that attendees will be scared away next year. But that has not dampened the group's resolve. Organizers plan to begin work shortly on the next Fractal Fest.