Why was Beyond Wonderland music festival cancelled? Washington’s Gorge mass shooting incident explored 

Beyond Wonderland, an annual music festival that is held at the Gorge Amphitheater in Quincy County, Washington State, returned for another edition this year. However, following the mass shooting on June 17, 2023, the festival has canceled the Day 2 events of June 18, 2023.

The organizers announced the cancellation of the festival, which would have featured performances by artists such as Marshmellow, Afrojack, and more, via a post on their official Instagram page:

The mass shooting in Gorge, Washington State is part of a wider series of disparate but parallel mass shootings that have rocked mainland USA recently this year.

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Beyond Wonderland Mass Shooting: Latest in an uptick of violence

According to news reports, an unidentified active shooter, a specific category of attackers marked by violence, randomness and brutality, fired on multiple people at the overflow campsite of Beyond Wonderland festival at the Gorge Amphitheater, killing two and injuring several others. The sheriff at Grant County elaborated on the matter via the Facebook emergency post for public awareness, stating:

"Reports of a shooter received at approximately 8:25PM at the CAMPGROUNDS near George. Officers pursed, closed-in on the suspect, and have the suspect in custody. Multiple individuals have suffered gunshot wounds."

The page later elaborated that the incident was under investigation:

North Central Washington Special Investigation Unit is the independent investigative entity for the shooting at the Gorge Amphitheater and the entity that will handle news media regarding Saturday’s officer-involved shooting.

The Gorge Amphitheater shooting is a disparate part of a string of shooting incidents that have taken place this month.

In Willowbrook, Illinois, on June 18, 2023, a shooting incident took place during a Juneteenth celebration in a parking lot, injuring more than 23 people.

In Central Pensylvania, a shooter attacked the State Police barracks, killing one officer and injuring at least one more. The incident took place on June 18, 2023. Another shooting event on the same day took place at a St. Louis, Missouri downtown office, killing one teenager, and wounding several others.

Yet another shooting incident happened at a pool party in Carson, California, injuring several people, while on June 16, 2023, a Baltimore, New York shooting left several people injured.

Carnegie Mellon University public policy researcher Daniel Nagin stated in an exclusive interview with NPR, that violence was increasing in the United States, particularly the mainland:

"There's no question there's been a spike in violence. Some of these cases seem to be just disputes, often among adolescents, and those disputes are played out with firearms, not with fists."

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More about Beyond Wonderland and its history

Beyond Wonderland was first held in National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino, California. The festival was conceptualized by the organizers, Insomniac Events, as the electronica counterpart to the Nocturnal Wonderland. The festival was supposed to be the first in a series of Wonderland festivals that would be organized at the same time.

The festival expanded from its Californian edition to include a second edition in Washington State in 2011, with the first Washington Beyond Wonderland being held at the WAMU Theater in Seattle.

The festival then expanded to two seperate Californian editions with the Oakland Beyond Wonderland being held on September 29, 2012 at the Oakland- Alameda County Coliseum parking lot.

All three Beyond Wonderland editions are known for multiple stages of electronic and EDM music, with the prevalent music genres being dubstep, drum and bass, house, trance, and ambient. The festivals also feature contemporary sculpture art, light mazes and poi dancers.