Moe.down Man Found Dead

TURIN — A man found unresponsive at the moe.down concert early Saturday and later pronounced dead at a Lowville hospital has been identified as David F. Laribee.
The 37-year-old Utica man was lying in the expansive camping area at 12:40 a.m. Saturday when fellow concertgoers became concerned and called for medics, according to the Lewis County Sheriff's Department.
Sheriff L. Michael Tabolt said Mr. Laribee suffered a "sudden death," and an autopsy performed Saturday by Dr. Samuel A. Livingstone, Jefferson County medical examiner, was inconclusive. Toxicology results are pending.
"Foul play does not appear to be a factor, however, until the investigation is complete and circumstances reviewed, the investigation will remain active and open," the Sheriff's Department release states.
Deputies said they were having trouble finding the "true identity" of Mr. Laribee, whose last known address was San Francisco. He was not carrying any identification at the concert.
The man was attending the three-day moe.down festival held annually on Labor Day weekend at the Snow Ridge Ski Area, along Route 26.
This is the ninth year the ski resort has hosted the concert for the Buffalo-based jam band that formed in the early 1990s. While music and drugs (and subsequent arrests) flow aplenty, this is the first death associated with the festival.
"We always have some minor scrapes and cuts that we can take care of right here," said moe. promoter Jon Topper. "Every year, you go into the concert and hope that nothing bad is going to happen."
Mr. Topper said there are always medical personnel at the concert, including a doctor who stays at the venue.
The promoter had not heard the final ticket count Saturday afternoon, but said roughly 8,000 people were expected to be in attendance.
"Probably 95 percent of them are camping," he said.
With 7,600 people staying overnight in the parking lot, the temporary tent city more than doubles the population of the nearby village of Lowville.
Later Saturday morning, there still was an air of uninhibited partying around the tents. People sat by their tents drinking alcohol, others played games and a girl walked around selling vegetarian burritos.
With pancake batter in hand and a beer nearby, Peter M. Ulrich, Broomfield, Colo., said he flew in Thursday for the concert, which he attends regularly.
"We borrowed a cooler from a friend and flew in with everything else," he said. "I like it here; it's small, the atmosphere is nice and everyone's friendly."
Mr. Ulrich said people largely were still getting settled in Friday.
"It becomes its own little tent city for a little while," he said.
He was unaware that someone was taken from the venue in an ambulance.
Moe. will play its last of six sets to close out the concert tonight. Also playing today are the Presidents of the USA, Levon Helm, Lynch, Cornmeal, the Bridge and the Macpodz.
In other concert news, deputies arrested Steven A. Yanus, 22, Fairport, and charged him with third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance after they allegedly found him with 6 grams of ecstasy powder and 12 strips of LSD.
He was arraigned in Turin Town Court and sent to Lewis County jail, Lowville, on $5,000 bail. His arrest is not in connection with Mr. Laribee's death.