Summary
This episode chronicles the SoulFest EDM festival in Ponce de Leon, Florida, which descended into chaos due to aggressive policing, logistical failures, and a volunteer's drug-fueled attack on a deputy. The story exposes how a county commissioner running a bail bond business exploited the festival arrests, leading to his eventual felony charges for illegal business practices.
Insights
- Small-town law enforcement can weaponize festivals as revenue opportunities through bail bond operations, creating perverse incentives that prioritize arrests over public safety
- Heavy-handed policing at events generates community backlash and legal accountability when conflicts of interest are exposed through social media organizing
- Festival organizers underestimate local political opposition in conservative areas where cultural values clash with event demographics
- Regulatory gaps in rural counties allow large events to proceed without permits or oversight until problems force emergency ordinance creation
- Transparency and media attention can trigger enforcement of existing ethics laws that were previously ignored or unenforced
Trends
Rise of social media-organized advocacy groups challenging local law enforcement practices post-eventConflict-of-interest vulnerabilities in small-town government where officials operate multiple business interestsConservative communities using event regulation as cultural gatekeeping mechanism against perceived outsider valuesDisproportionate arrest rates at niche festivals compared to mainstream events suggesting selective enforcement patternsDelayed accountability for government corruption (1+ year lag between festival and felony charges)Festival organizers lacking due diligence on local political climate and regulatory environment before site selection
Topics
Music festival management and risk assessmentSmall-town law enforcement practices and policing tacticsConflict of interest in local government (bail bonds and law enforcement)Event permitting and regulatory frameworksDrug enforcement at music festivalsPolice accountability and community advocacyRural vs. urban cultural values and event hostingGovernment ethics violations and enforcementFestival attendee rights and civil libertiesEDM and rave culture normsBurning Man comparison and festival culture differences
Companies
Wix
Sponsor offering AI-powered website builder (Wix Harmony) for creating business sites with minimal coding
Public
Sponsor providing investment platform with AI-generated assets for custom stock index creation and portfolio management
Redfin
Sponsor offering real estate platform with agent services claiming 2x deal closure rate vs. competitors
Paycore
Sponsor providing HR software platform including payroll, talent management, and compliance tools
Mint Mobile
Sponsor offering wireless plans at $15/month with celebrity spokesperson Ryan Reynolds
iHeart Media
Podcast network distributing the CrimeLess show
Campsite Media
Production company behind CrimeLess podcast
People
Josh Dean
Co-host of CrimeLess podcast covering the SoulFest festival incident and government corruption story
Rory Scoville
Co-host who attended Burning Man and provided comparative analysis of festival policing and culture
Lane
Produced rave culture quiz segment and researched festival terminology and practices
John Tate
Law enforcement official who led aggressive policing at SoulFest, describing it as 'hunting' drug users
Brandon Newsom
Commissioner and bail bondsman who profited from festival arrests; later charged with two felonies for illegal busine...
James Anderson
Volunteer arrested after biting deputy's head during altercation in robot DJ booth while on multiple drugs
Ron DeSantis
Signed executive order suspending Brandon Newsom from Holmes County Commission following felony charges
Quotes
"If you want to say that we were hunting you, okay, so be it. We were hunting. But we were hunting law violations and drug use."
Sheriff John Tate•~25:00
"It is a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah. I've seen stuff out there before I'd never seen before in Holmes County."
Sheriff John Tate•~45:00
"The festival itself was fucking amazing. Best sound quality I've ever heard. The vibes and the people were immaculate."
SoulFest attendee (Reddit review)•~30:00
"I felt like a lot of people in the festival felt like they were being hunted rather than protected."
Festival attendee (WJHG news interview)•~26:00
"Peace, love, unity and respect."
Lane (defining PLURR)•~75:00
Full Transcript
This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Hey there, CrimeListNation. If you've been sitting on a business idea for a while, consider this the sign to take action. It can even be made official today by creating a website with Wix Harmony. Just tell Wix Harmony what you want and it will build the entire site, business features included. And everything can still be edited by hand. It's your website after all, your call. Try it today at wix.com slash harmony. That's wix.com slash Harmony. Support for the show comes from public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt from renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers, growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com slash podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com slash podcast paid for by public investing, brokerage services by open to the public investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC advisory services by public advisors, LLC, SEC, registered advisor, generated assets is an interactive analysis tool output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice, complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. There's a difference between liking a house and actually getting it. Redfin is built to make up that difference and close the gap between finding and owning the home for you. Redfin agents close twice as many deals as other agents. So when you find a home you love, you're not a step behind when it comes to making an offer. That means less of watching great homes disappear and more focus on the one you'll call home. Redfin helps turn saved listings into real addresses. Get started at redfin.com. Own the dream. Do you ever feel like you're drinking from a firehouse? PayCore's intelligent HR solution empowers leaders to turn down the pressure. Their unified platform includes payroll, talent management, compliance software and a lot more connecting you to the people, data and expertise you need to drive long term business results. Visit paycore.com slash leaders and go from work flood to work flow. That's paycore.com slash leaders. Guys, Don Lemon started following me. Huge news. Hey now, finally. Campsite media. Yeah. Rory, I know you experienced a real right of passage recently. You went to Burning Man. That's correct. How was Burning Man? It was incredible. I give it four stars. I'd give it more stars if we were allowed to. Five, six, however many are available. Loved it. More stars than SEAL teams? I would give it more stars than SEAL teams that are out there. Yeah, you loved it. So I felt like in honor of your experience as you were changed by it. Yeah, fully. So we think of festivals as these wonderful carnivals for letting go of our worldly stresses for gathering with our fellow humans and celebrating the gifts of life. But they can also be chaotic back and alls where people are at their worst. They act poorly and they make terrible choices. Yeah, which makes for some very good stories. And you're in luck today because I think I found the anti-Burning Man. Oh, it's not a free form jazz fest held in the tundra. It's an EDM festival in small town Florida. Okay, here we go. Do I have your attention? You've got it. I'm engaged. This story has it all. Poor decision making, wacky crimes, cops with thick Southern accents and a little bit of government corruption. All that and more after the break. Yeah. Hello, and welcome back to crime list. The podcast that celebrates the amazing creativity of the world's dumbest criminals when it's not dancing in a speedo in the Nevada desert. I'm Josh Dean. I'm Roy Scoble, speedo dancer extraordinaire. How many years has Burning Man been a thing? Do you know? I think it's over 30 years. Could be 30, 40. I don't know. Wild. And now it's like a city with however many 80,000 people. I think this past year was 70,000. Someone said, damn, it's so many people. It's massive, but it's incredible. I'm going to tell you today about a festival that's had a much shorter run, despite its organizers best interests. After the events we'll talk about today, the festival went on an indefinite hiatus thanks to the tenacity of one small Florida municipality. The events in question was called Soul Fest as in like Spanish for sun. It was a four day EDM festival. Yeah. So not that long ago, this isn't 2024. The festivals organizers were planning their biggest party yet. Over 50 artists slated to perform on three stages. It's all bands that I've literally never heard of before. Let me read you a few. Rez, Closie, LS, LSD Dream or LS Dream. I think it's probably LS Dream. Bob Moses, Lettuce, Dabin of the Trees. Any of these ring a bell for you, Rory? I do not know any of these artists. I vaguely recall you raving about Lettuce's third album, but maybe I just mentioned it. Maybe we just talked about Lettuce more. That's because it changed the game and it deserves that kind of respect. Well, it wasn't only about the music. If this lineup wasn't necessarily your own personal Woodstock 99, there was other stuff on display too, like art installations, murals. Cool. You could check out spiritual healing workshops like meditation, yoga, breath work. Sounds like a great place to do drugs if I'm being honest. Yep. So maybe kind of like Burning Man in that aspect. SoulFest also advertised endless activities like Frick Frack Blackjack, Sonic Portal and body marbling. Also potentially things that could be at Burning Man in my mind. Yeah. I don't know what any of these things are to you. I don't. I don't know what those are. I honestly feels like you just made that up on the fly. I may have, but if so, I made up the answers because I'm about to tell you. Frick Frack Blackjack is no cash betting, bartering only. Oh, they stole that from burning. They're biting some of Burning Man style here with the bartering. Oh, the Sonic Portal seems to be some sort of an immersive experience, a psychedelic spaceship ride. And body marbling is a temporary artistic technique that creates intricate, swirled patterns on the skin by dipping the body in a water based paint bath. Oh, yeah. OK, I kind of know what that is, even though I still have never understood how it works, but the portal thing sounds pretty cool. Sounds kind of cool, right? Yeah. So like so far so good. OK, Florida. I feel like these Floridians are mostly trying to like bite off Burning Man style, but on a budget, it's like it does sound like hearts are in the right place. I have a feeling we're going to take a turn, but it does seem like hearts are in the right place. Yeah. So naturally, organizers settled on Ponce de Leon, Florida, a tiny town in the panhandle with a population of 2000 and zero traffic lights, but a whole lot of heart. Yeah, can't believe it's in Ponce de Leon and they went with Soul Fest, as opposed to like eternal life fest or something. Oh, my God, you're right. Yeah, Festival of Eternal Life. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. All right, so we're going to send some notes. We'll send them a critique afterwards with our notes. That's one. Note number one. Yeah, you missed a real opportunity with the name. More specifically, it's set up in Vortex Springs, a local water park in a natural spring campground for four days. Organizers predicted the festival would bring in 10,000 people. I did look up the attendance of Burning Man this year. It was between 70 and 80,000. OK, yeah. So you're right. Yeah, you were pretty much spot on. As a reference point, Lollapalooza drew 115,000. Oh, my God. Per day. So this is small potatoes, 10,000. Yeah, you might think that this relatively small event would bring welcome economic opportunities for the small town. But nope, the locals were not. You'll be shocked to hear thrilled about all the hippie-dippy crowds coming into their camp. I mean, 10,000 people is still kind of a small arena. So if you can picture an arena, that's still quite a bit of people. But 10, yes, comparatively. In a town of 2,000 with no traffic lights, five times the size of the town. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So about a month before the festival, the Holmes County Board of Commissioners hosted a town meeting to address the concerns about SoulFest. Organizers of the event, concern citizens and town officials piled into a conference room. Officials complained that they didn't know SoulFest was coming until a month before it started, and they didn't have any town ordinances in place to regulate events like this, nor did SoulFest need to acquire any permits to host it on private property. In other words, Florida realized that its general dislike of regulations isn't always the best policy. Yeah, that's right. So you hate regulation until you realize you need them. Until it affects you. And that's a very standard sort of red state mentality. Until it affects me, I oppose other people getting to do a thing. And that has been our political minute. And that's Political Minute with Rory Scoville. One particularly outspoken attendee was the town sheriff, a man named John Tate. He was concerned about the potential for drugs at the festival, saying, I've made that clear to them. I'm not going to turn a blind eye to drugs. If people are in the venue using drugs, they're going to jail. Plain and simple. Yep. So one resident who lives within a mile of Ortex Spring had experience with these type of events, and he warned everyone this way. The minute you get in, the hallucinogenic drugs come out. You have people running around seeing pink elephants and purple dinosaurs all night. That sounds very specific. Yeah, maybe. That would not protest too much. But also, if you see a purple dinosaur, you can probably conclude internally that's an hallucination. Yeah. I mean, honestly, that doesn't, the sense like kind of fun experience. It does seem like that. The way, I mean, if you're going to see a dinosaur, it's like, yeah, I want the Barney. Give me the Barney, you know? I mean, yeah, not exactly the nightmare that if you're trying to scare people, I'm not sure. It also sounds like, yes, maybe a very specific example that this one gentleman. Yeah, a lot of people that tell me they were like, well, shit, maybe we should go to this thing. The organizers, of course, assured everyone that their event did not promote drug use. It was about the music, the hula hoops, peace and love, man. They promised security would be present in addition to TSA style checkpoints. So to summarize, we've got a small, rural, conservative town in Florida with no traffic lights, a loud EDM music festival with 10,000 body painting enthusiasts, and a police force with a bone to pick. What could go wrong? So if you're the festival organizer, what's your next move? You're going to cancel the whole thing, send a fruit basket to the sheriff? You can't. You got to forge ahead. I've got to imagine there's pretty good money in this. 10,000 people. Yeah. Tickets are like, you know, for four days. Tickets probably like 300 bucks, maybe, for like a four day pass. And we've all seen the Firefest documentary. We know what happens when you take people's money and don't give them what they want. Yeah. And you get to do it again a few years later. So there's no downside. Really? You go to jail for, you get slapped on the wrist and then you come out and you do the festival all over again. Yeah. God, people are so dumb. I guess that could be the tagline for our show. God, people are so dumb. People are so dumb. So the organizers, of course, went full speed ahead. Thousands of people from all over the world arrived at Vortex Springs ready to dance, party, and get their bodies marbled. Yeah. And what do you know? The weekend goes off without a hitch. Oh, just kidding. It's like, wow, Josh, you really went off script this time. Really went with a new kind of. And that's the end of our episode, ladies and gentlemen. And nothing was illegal and the town grew into a city. Was that Footloose? Is that the plot of Footloose? This has very modern day Footloose vibes, for sure. The sheriff takes LSD and has the time of his life. Kevin Bacon, DJ'd all night. Yeah. So no, there are a lot of hitches. So some people had a great time. I read several positive reviews on Reddit like this one. The festival itself was fucking amazing. Best sound quality I've ever heard. The vibes and the people were immaculate. And then this very chill lady who talked to the local news, I believe Lane has this clip for us. I love a clip. Love a good clip. It's just part of the way the world works and the universe works. You know, you can't have good without the bad. But for the most part, the festival was nothing but like higher vibrational people, people loving each other and supporting each other. And you know what? She's right in just talking about the very basics of universal balance. She's correct. That was like, that was the cleanest take possible where she's like, and I will not name drop anything good or bad. Well, anyway, despite the higher vibrations experienced by this lady, there were a ton of logistical issues. The parking was a mess. The traffic overwhelmed the town. Of course, attendees were stranded in their cars for hours. Public schools had to cancel classes because the roads were so packed they couldn't get the buses to school. No one considered the impact on children, Rory. Yeah. And they rarely do. That's called America. That's not just Florida. That's literally the entire country. And that was political minute part two. And that's my second hot tank. Within the grounds itself, attendees reported a lot of confusion about festival layout, miscommunication, low quantities of luxury items like water and toilet paper. Yes, gotta consider that. Also, there was a car fire that burned and destroyed four other cars before the firefighters showed up. But the biggest complaint by far was five oh, or as you like to say, the fuzz. The fuzz. By the way, I was thinking about that. I have never wandered until today until I wrote that down. And I was like, why did they start calling cops the fuzz? Why is it called the fuzz? And I tried. I wanted to have an answer for you, but the internet failed me here. Nobody seems to know. And the most common theories are pretty dumb, but I'm going to tell you anyway. OK. So one is that it was a mispronunciation or a mishearing of the slang feds or maybe shorthand force. But that seems unlikely to me. How do you get from feds or forced to fuzz? Fuzz. Fuzz. I don't know. I guess it would require one person to mishear it and then say it to another person who then adopted it. And I don't think that's how it works. Another is that maybe it comes from fuzz as in what the cops make or are trying to stop. But I don't think that's it either. I mean, I got to say there's validity in all these, but I also agree. I don't think that's it. My favorite explanation slash guess comes from Reddit, of course, where someone suggests that it's hobo slang. I just love the word hobo. I think it is. It does seem like it is like code word. You could say the fuzz. And at a time, no one understood it. And the people who did were like, this is a great private language we have. And then it became very trendy and popular. And now it's not a code name anymore. Yeah. And the theory here is that it maybe it referred to like the buzz cut military styles that cops had in the fifties and sixties. So I feel like that could make sense. Sure. Is everybody had long hair? They had buzzed hair. We call them the fuzz. The fuzz. Anyway, now that I've not helped it all there, clearing up that question. Yeah. Heck of a side mission we had right there. That was incredible. I wanted to I wanted it to deliver and it just didn't. I couldn't land the plane. Little side quest. I failed at my side quest, but I can't win them all. But I was starting to say that cops were everywhere doing cop stuff, pulling over cars before they made it to the campgrounds, conducting random searches of tents, patrolling undercover in the crowds, hoping to bust anyone who smelled even a little funny. Yeah. Here's one. Another festival attendee told the local news station, WJHG. And then Sheriff Tate's response to that. So I felt like a lot of people in the festival felt like they were being hunted rather than protect. If you want to say that we were hunting you. OK, so be it. We were hunting. But we were hunting law violations and drug use. Yes, we were. And I don't deny that because I told you if you come here and you use drugs and you bring drugs, then yes, we were going to try our best to lock you up. I love some people's misinterpretation of just deciding to make assumptions that people have drugs and they are searching and have no concept of what freedom is, but yet definitely are certain that they're protecting it. Who's saving the children? But no concept of what it even actually is as a thing. He seemed like a fun guy, John Tate. He seems like kind of clueless. He seems like a clueless guy who is like, yeah, of course, I was targeting people. Oh, all right. Well, I have to say, I would like to search your home because I think you might have. And he would go, well, you can't do that. And I would go, oh, do you get it now? Do you get it now, Mr. Officer? I'll just bleep the specific allegation that you made. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was going to describe it further. But I was like, oh, wait, this is a family show. Exactly. So, yeah, so you could get a sense of the heavy handed policing that went down. Oh, for sure. So really, the problem necessarily wasn't the attendees. It was the cops. But by the end of the weekend, they had arrested over 50 people, probably more in traffic stops. For reference, there were only 28 arrests at Burning Man in 2024, despite eight times the number of people. So, yes, this guy. So, you know, there's cops at Burning Man, and they're all just very, they're sort of doing the job that you sort of fantasize that a cop would be doing and in normal society, which is just being helpful. And I mean, I had a cop alert me that there was a storm coming the next day at four o'clock and be ready for it. And I was like, oh, that was not the interaction I thought I was about to have. So, yeah, they're just not like bugging any. They're just there if something does they're there to help because things do happen. And, you know, they step in. And also, it's no secret that there's obviously drug use at Burning Man. But people are pretty discreet about it. Well, most of the arrests in Vortex Springs were for possession of illegal substances. And I think we just learned that maybe these people weren't even openly using that they were just like Sheriff John just like busted into their tents. And yeah, one woman was cuffed for sticking her feet in the vendor's drinking water and for quote terrorizing everyone. So maybe she crossed the line. Yeah, see, that's there you go. Maybe get you off to a quiet little place to sleep it off, lady. Yeah, but the real doozy from that weekend happened in the robot DJ booth, which is if you didn't know, a giant robot shaped DJ platform. So here's what happened. It's on the last day of the festival, a deputy is making his rounds when he decides he for whatever reason needs to get inside the belly of that giant robot. A volunteer named James Anderson followed the deputy up the ladder into the belly because that area was supposed to be limited access. And that's when the fight broke out between the two. Oh, and Anderson allegedly tried to grab the officer's gun. And then he took a bite out of the deputy's head. OK. I mean, it's a choice. We've all been down these roads. It was a pretty big chomp. I wouldn't recommend looking at the photos online, but for reference, it's about the size of a silver dollar pancake. No. Oh, yeah. Trigger warning. Yeah. Rory, it was so deep that you could see a skull. I don't mean to laugh there. No, no, I don't need to see that. Anderson even complained that he had hair in his teeth after the attack, which is probably a time when he should have been keeping his mouth shut. Yeah, you had to open earlier, maybe shut it now. Yeah. So ultimately, his toddler fighting tactics failed. He was tackled to the ground and fortunately just tased, not shot. This is Florida. Yep. The guy should be counting his blessings. And I'm impressed that he's not dead. Yeah, because, you know, I feel like if you bite a cop, like he may be able to say he had caused a pulse weapon. So I would assume that. Yeah. Do you want to guess what drugs this guy was on? Ketamine, acid, LSD and two IPAs. Oh, you're batting average is very high on this show. You've got three of the five. Oh, great. Wait, IPAs? No, it's not the IPA. So it was you said acid, you said ketamine, LSD, but you missed. So you missed PCP in mushrooms. I almost said mushrooms. I wouldn't have guessed PCP, but that actually is. I'm going to say PCP was doing most of the lifting. I feel like I grew up being told that PCP is the one that makes people like jump off buildings. I think PCP. Yeah, I think PCP was if you if you got rid of PCP, I don't think this happens. Now, his lawyer claimed his client never tested positive for those drugs at the hospital, but he did plead no contest to aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and was sentenced to six years in prison, followed by 10 years of felony probation. So he's probably really going to regret taking that PCP. I think he's not happy about it. Yeah, the Holmes County chief prosecutor said, this is the most severe bite wound I've ever seen in my career. I guess he's seen a lot of bite wounds. Yeah. And he's he lives in Florida. Right. He's a prosecutor in Florida. Of course, specifically for bite wounds. That's how many. Right. And that's how much this happens. How many of these there are? So after four days, 50 arrests, one big bite of a cop. The locals were ready to dish out a heaping pile of I told you so at their next town meeting. I love that. We're going to get into. I love the I told you so town hall meeting after the break. Hey, crimeless nation. Vibe coding is everywhere right now, but it's not just for apps anymore. Now it's making its way into website creation. The incredible web building tool Wix has introduced Wix Harmony, a vibe coder for websites that let you type what you want and generate a site ready to use right away, complete with forms, payments, security, anything you want, really all built in. But don't worry, Wix Harmony doesn't require AI for everything. You can still jazz things up a bit if you want. 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Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com slash podcast and earn an uncapped one percent bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com slash podcast paid for by public investing, brokerage services by open to the public investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC advisory services by public advisors LLC, SEC registered advisor, generated assets is an interactive analysis tool output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. Let's talk about modern home shopping. It's sort of become a fun side hobby, right? Scrolling listings at night, dreaming about kitchens you've never seen or backyards you haven't even stepped foot in, all from the comforts of pretty much anywhere. 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Connecting you to the people, data, and expertise you need to drive long term business results. Visit paycore.com slash leaders and go from work flood to workflow. That's paycore.com slash leaders. This is crimeless. On May 16th, 2024, nearly 100 people showed up to a town meeting to debrief after SoulFest. Sheriff John Tate, the officer who promised to hunt people, took the mic and described what he saw. Oh, you've already heard his accent. This is going to help. Rory, could you please do the honors of reading his quotes for us in your best Florida panhandle cop voice? What we've seen firsthand out there is a lot of people who have seen firsthand out there. Listen, I'm not a Bible scholar. Okay. It is a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah. I've seen stuff out there before. I'd never seen before in Holmes County. And I'll tell you, I don't want to see it again either. Wow. We're nominating you for whatever voice acting. A voisee? A potty? A potty voisee? Do the potty voisee. All right, you can do these next two back to back. That do is it's still the same guy or is this a different witness? Yeah, so all these are all the same guy. Yeah. No, they're doing drugs. I want to change it up. I want this to be another person. All right. Yeah, that's fine. Okay. They're doing drugs in front of people out in the open and you're not going to do that in Florida. You don't do that. Go back to where you're from. The bottom line is all these people come from these states where they don't even have law and order. Love that someone believes there are states without law and order. Compared to Florida. Compared to Florida of all places. Now we're a little different here. We're a little different here. We have law and order. A state that is literally a global joke. A global joke. Truly a joke. All right. So you know you have truly accomplished something when your behavior is too shameful for Florida. And finally, back to the sheriff for this all the time. Back in the early years. Yeah, we were resting some folks because it was a different type of rodeo. It was for people fighting because they got drunk and it wasn't people openly snorting coke and walking around with their furry things hanging out their rear end. Their furry things. What is he referring to? What drugs did he do? And what did he hallucinate at the festival? So if you didn't catch that at home, the line was openly snorting coke and walking around with furry things hanging out their rear end. Yeah. What the hell? I want to assume people maybe were doing they had tails like they were doing furry dress up type shit. And he thought it was, you know, coming out of their butts. He thought people were pooping fur. They don't even have laws in other states. We are Florida. We're a little bit different. Oh my God. So the residents were pretty shell shocked too. One said it's the most demonic thing I've ever seen in our country. This is not economic development. It's Satan and he's trying to come into our county like a flood. Yeah, I like that he was kind of cool with people getting drunk and wanting to fight. All good. But these people that are just dressing up and dancing. No, sir. This literally is footloose. You're not going to come to our town and enjoy yourself. OK, do that somewhere else. Yeah, you want to get drunk and fight a local citizen. Fine and good. But don't come in here with your hallucinogenics and tell me you talk to God while you are dancing. OK, because that's the devil's work. One woman even claimed that someone flashed a school bus. I believe that's one of the horsemen of the apocalypse. Right. I mean, look, you're going to get some wild cards. Ten thousand people. You're going to get some wild cards. In the end, it was unanimous. Solfest would never ever be welcomed back to God's glorious panhandle, at least not this cozy corner. Yeah. And the board of county commissioners promised they would establish ordinances that would regulate large scale events like these going forward. Oh, the irony. I can only imagine how fun future festivals could even possibly be with those ordinances. Well, County Commissioner Brandon Newsom lived just a mile from Bortech Springs. He expressed his concerns as well, saying, I think we should give this to Rory, too. I enjoyed this. So this can be a different Florida man, by the way. Remember, this is County Commissioner Brandon Newsom. So he's maybe a little bit more uppity than tough guy, Sheriff John Tate. About two weeks before when the county commission learned about this event, I started doing some research myself. I knew it was something I wanted to make the public aware of. And some of the things I saw, I grew up in my Christian values. You can't compare the rodeo to this type of event. OK, it's apples to oranges. Why do they keep talking about the rodeo? There's an actual rodeo that happens in the county. Rodeo comes up a lot. It's not even a metaphor. They're like, look, if you want to bring animals here that we can abuse by making them entertain us, that is fine. That is God gave us that gift. You cannot compare the rodeo to this type of event. I mean, he's not he's not wrong. You can't compare the rodeo to the EDM music festival. You really can't. He's not wrong. I agree with him on that one. You're going to have different food truck vendors at those events. You just are. I mean, one of those things is people riding horses and like trying to tackle yeah, angry bulls and the other one is a dance. I never in my life have seen people come to my town that I grew up in who are mostly gluten free and vegan and we do not welcome you. I should point out that this Newsom, this commissioner Newsom owns one of, if not the only, Baal Bond company in the county. And so before the event, Baal Bonds by Brandon Newsom reposted the Solfest lineup on his Facebook page with the caption, we welcome you to have fun in good times. But if you get in a tight call, we can get you out before the soap hits the floor. Do you smell something fishy, Rory? Oh, man, dark. That's you know, that's a good and honestly, that's fast. Because I think if we all know anything about getting arrested, they make you shower with the other inmates immediately. But after the festival, it wasn't just townsfolk who were upset. People who attended the festival were pissed with how the cops treated the crowd and the animosity they felt from the town. And I think perhaps we've come to relate to how they might feel. Yeah, that they maybe did behave themselves OK, but they were set up to fail. And a bunch of people, especially those gobbled up in the 50 arrests, spent an uncomfortable time in the Holmes County Jail until Baal was set, which was at the discretion of the local justice system. SoulFest attendees started chatting online, forming an advocacy group called Justice for SoulFest on Reddit, one person pointed out, let's not forget that it's against the ethical code law to be part of a police force and run a Baal's bondsman company. It's explicitly stated. Another responded, I've been knee deep in the Florida statutes trying to figure this piece out. I plan on filing ethics violation against the commissioner and want to use the correct language. Is it that the commissioner helps plan the budget for the sheriff's office? And then the more people they arrest, the more money he gets. Thus, using his office for personal gain. Am I on the right path here? Yeah, that was in May of 2024. But good things take time. In June of 2025, just over a year later, this doozy of a headline hit the local news. Holmes County Commissioner facing two felony charges. Oh, it's interesting who the criminals actually are. And just think if he would have just done a little bit of Molly and gone dancing, he would have had a whole other path in his life. He would have been a good person. Love would have opened some doors in his mind. I can't even go. I can't. I can't, Josh. I can't. I cannot stress. Instead, he saw a footloose as a kid and put him on a trajectory. And he was like, I like John Lithgow. Right. I must stop all Kevin Bacon's for the rest of time. Yeah, that's right. Our old friend Brandon Newsom, the Holmes County Commissioner, was charged with two felonies related to his bail bond business. According to documents filed with the state, Newsom allowed unlicensed individuals to accept money on behalf of his bail bond business, which is illegal. What's more, for a period of time, Newsom also worked as a sheriff's deputy while running his bail bond business, which is very illegal. Yeah. The icing on the cake. Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order immediately suspending Brandon Newsom from his seat on the Holmes County Commission. Two weeks later, the Florida Department of Financial Services officially suspended his bail bond agents license. Oh, it's interesting because you just would have thought they would have been on his side and been like, you can do whatever you want. Zero accountability. I think they were until it gets into the media. And then they're like, oh, we got to do something. That was one bad egg or one bad apple. What's the front? It's one bad apple, I believe. Well, it's apples and eggs. You can't compare them. It's apples to eggs. But it comes to rodeos. To quote, seraph tape. He said, guys, look, when it comes to RuPaul's drag race and rodeos, you just cannot compare the two. It's apples to eggs. By the way, Newsom pled not guilty, of course, to both charges. He's set to appear in Holmes County Court this fall. He also owns Holmes County Court. We should know it. We should know he owns it and all the employees there work for him. I should say that I don't know for sure if his charges are a direct result of the complaints filed by a soul fest attendees, but it seems pretty likely. Yeah. Or at least that the attention caused by the festival and the anger by those well-meaning shroom takers and body painters at a minimum, surely did not help his cause. Yeah, that's right. So what are the lessons to be learned here? What do you think? One, just common sense. Don't go to a music festival in a small southern town. If it's EDM. I mean, sure, there's probably certain music you could assume is going to be welcomed and supported. But also, yeah, you got to kind of, I would just know like, oh, this is probably going to be a nightmare. Just on your own, just assume it's going to be a nightmare. I just tried to avoid Florida period, but I realized that's not always possible. Yeah, it's not. It's not always possible. Also, if I'm organizing a festival, I might think twice before hosting in Florida. Yeah. After all, a very special place with high moral standards as we see every year during spring break. Yeah. Or do it in Orlando, where it's kind of expected. Or Fort Lauderdale. Yeah. Tampa. A lot of other options than Ponce de Leon. On the other side, I would say don't bite the cops. If I have one critique of the festival goers, maybe don't bite cops. We put the cart before the horse because that we should have... That should be our number one thing. Don't bite the cops. But no, we got into how much Florida bugs us. I would also add don't do PCP and anything, but also PCPLSD, kind of mean a mushrooms all at the same time. That's right. Trace yourselves, people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Sparse it out. It's a four day festival. And for the love of God, do not climb into the belly of a robot DJ stand unless you're prepared to scrap. Yep. Is all this making you nostalgic for Burning Man? I just miss it so much every second. Oh, after the break, our final segment, a festival related quiz, perhaps? We shall see. Seems likely. Hey, CrimeListNation. Vibe coding is everywhere right now, but it's not just for apps anymore. Now it's making its way into website creation. The incredible web building tool Wix has introduced Wix Harmony, a vibe coder for websites that let you type what you want and generate a site ready to use right away, complete with forms, payments, security, anything you want, really, all built in. But don't worry, Wix Harmony doesn't require AI for everything. You can still jazz things up a bit if you want. Just click and edit anything manually or select an element and have Aria, your AI agent, make updates for you. 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Hello and welcome back to CrimeList, a safe space for robot DJs and bail bondsmen as long as they play by the rules. It's now time for Lanes Game. Hell yeah. Lane? So when researching this episode, I realized I knew very little about rave culture, so I wanted to test your knowledge. Oh, I love this. And I also wanted to set Rory up for a win. So, I'm going to go for it. And I also wanted to set Rory up for a win. So, Josh, get ready. I feel like he won last one because he was described as excellent. Josh, you're living in the past. Okay, you got to let these things go. We have to move forward. Okay, thank you. You're right. I'm not going to dwell. Let's move on. Yeah. Today is a new day. Have you been to any music festivals, Josh? You square? I did. I went to one in Montreal just this summer. Where'd you go? The jazz festival? No, it was Oceaga. It's kind of Canada's lullapalooza. I took my kid. They really wanted to see Tyler, the creator. Oh, yeah. Who was? I have to say awesome. I love that. That's great. Cool. Okay, so maybe you'll know some of these. All right, first one. Tell me what these mean. B2B. Back to back. Business to business. Oh, God. Rory's a little closer. It's two or more DJs playing a set together. And also, this is what I gathered from people online. This is, I'm sure, these definitions are fluid. So. Also, this is all par for the course for me. I don't usually get Rory was right. I usually get Rory is closer to the thing. All right. How about flow arts? It's going to be a light show. It's going to be light-based entertainment. It's a type of dancing. I think Rory is more right. Par for the course. Rory's closer. It is dance performance that uses LED lights. Yeah. Or props. We were both right. Wait, it's a dance performance. It's a dance slash performance. You just. I think we're both right. I think if you combine our answers, we were. If you combine our answers, we both get a half a point. Okay. How about K and D? K, A, N, D, I. Drugs. Drugs. Drugs. Yummy, yummy drugs. No, that's not what. Sorry, guys. It's stretchy, colorful bracelets made from beads that often say words or phrases. They are made by ravers to give to other ravers at the event. Well, you're actually wrong because my drug is jewelry. My drug of choice is jewelry. And that's what I meant when I said drugs. I feel like it's also drugs. It could all. But also, it's the bracelets that you eat and you get high. Yeah. I mean, it could be. I did watch a vlog of some girl who went to SoulFest and she said she was making candy. And now I understand it, but she was making bracelets. All right. Okay. All right. Plurr, P-L-U-R. Oh, I know this. Do you really? I've heard this and asked about it and learned it and then didn't retain it. Plurr. I don't know. Like so many things at school. It stands for something. Oh, it stands for something. Yeah. Oh, that's a hint. But that actually doesn't help. I'll give you a hint. Like it reminds people how to treat each other at raves and festivals. Oh, positive, loving. I can't think of the word. Unreconditional respect. Together, you got it right. Peace, love, unity and respect. Okay. How about a side quest? When the drug kicks in and you think it'd be fun to get to the merch table early and then on your way to the merch table, let me finish. And then on your way to the merch table, you'd make a bathroom stop, which is near the refreshments and you get something. I don't know. I actually don't know. I'm going to say when you're on one drug and you take a different drug, a second drug. Rory is more correct. It is when you leave the group to go up on your own. All right. Wow. Is he kind of under? I love that all of my answers that are correct are technically gray. Conditionally, yes. You don't really know. A case could be made that is correct. We can't say for sure. Rory is stepping in the right direction. All right. What about the Wook flu? Oh, yeah. That's got to be a dance. The Wook flu is COVID. It's actually COVID. You know, then in the fish culture, they call people Wookies. But that's not rave culture. Some people are labeled that way. Oh, I got to guess. It's what Han Solo called a hangover. No. Oh. I will say, I mean, Rory's. Rory's pointing at the camera. I feel like that means I won. I honestly was like, that's a great guess. A Wook is someone who is like free spirited and laid back and really into the festival lifestyle. And when you have the Wook flu, that means you get sick after a rave or a festival. Oh, hangover. So I was close. Also, it is what Han Solo would call a hangover. I feel like it may not be what he actually does, but he would. Josh is putting theoretical answers together. And they're pretty incredible. Appreciate the effort. In the Star Wars universe. This is not a Star Wars quiz, however. Yeah. That's right. I mean, that bar that they go to on kind of rave. That's kind of rave. Jazz, kind of a rave. That's kind of a rave. Yeah. Jump, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bidadadadadado. Whoa. Space music's not bad. I mean, it was ravey, right? I had elements of a rave. Yes, I'm with you. Sure. All right, a ground score. What's a ground score? You found something. You found a pill on the ground, drugs, more drugs. Yeah. Eat that shit. Five-second rule. Yep. Exactly. Yes. It's something you find on the ground, usually drugs, but sometimes it refers to small like a bean sprout clip or tiny glass bone figurines. I bet that's not as fun as drugs. I found Somali. I found a tiny bean sprout clip. I found a nerd from a pack of nerds. Someone dropped one nerd. Our scores are different. And finally, caking. What is caking? Well, look, I'm not an idiot, and I know it doesn't have anything to do with baking. I'm not fucking stupid. But doing edibles that you baked? I know that I just said, like, I know I put up my own walls right before I gave the answer that goes against those barriers, but well, I guess everything would be an edible really in a way. But when you think about it, that was deep. Caking. I don't know. I actually, I don't know. I'm going to say body paint. Neither viewer right. It is when Steve Aoki throws a cake in your face during his set. I would have never guessed that, but I've heard of that. You have. Yeah. Is that a big thing? Yes, I have heard of it. And I think I've seen it. I think I've seen a clip of him doing it. It's like a known thing that he does. Oh yeah. Smash Town USA. I think that actually would be fun. I think it would be fun too. Oh, he's got a pretty, pretty incredible aim. Yeah. No way he hits this target. No way he hits this target. All right. Whoa, what? No way. Wow. I'm impressed by that. I support that. You got to search Steve Aoki cake. Look, he's going to hit the kid. What? The kid loves it. His accuracy is amazing. I know. I guess when you throw enough cakes, you start to learn the trajectory of, you know, how to throw the cake. Cake physics. I think Roy won. I think on that note, Roy won. Oh, he definitely won. He had more that were in the ballpark of big crowd. Also wrong, just better wrong. Yeah. Yeah. You excelled at being wrong. Yeah. All right. Well, we'll see you guys next week. Bye. Yeah. Mark McAdam composed our theme song. The executive producers at campsite media are Vanessa Gregoriadis, Matt Cher, and me, Josh Dean. The executive producers for iHeart Podcast and Big Money Players are Jack O'Brien, Lindsay Hoffman, and Matt Apadaka. For SmartLiz Media, the executive producers are Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Richard Corson. Bernie Kaminski is head of production. The associate producer is Maddie McCann. A special thanks to our operations team, Ashley Warren, and Sabina Mara. Do you have a question, comment, or confession for the crime list team? Email us at crimelistatcampsitemedia.com. And if you enjoyed crime lists, please rate and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. It helps people find the show and also makes us feel validated, unless you're mean. In which case, keep it to yourself. We'll see you next week, Crime List Nation. Do you ever feel like you're drinking from a firehouse? Paycore's intelligent HR solution empowers leaders to turn down the pressure. Their unified platform includes payroll, talent management, compliance software, and a lot more, connecting you to the people, data, and expertise you need to drive long-term business results. Visit paycore.com slash leaders and go from work flood to workflow. That's paycore.com slash leaders. There's a difference between liking a house and actually getting it. Redfin is built to make up that difference and close the gap between finding and owning the home for you. Redfin agents close twice as many deals as other agents. 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