Rock Medicine reports ‘mellow’ BottleRock

Mellow is the way Gordon Oldham, director of Rock Medicine, describes the crowd at BottleRock. Its a very behaved crowd, he said Friday afternoon.

The five-day BottleRock music festival, which began Wednesday night, is expected to bring as many as 35,000 people daily to the Napa Valley Expo.

As of mid-day Friday, 44 patients had been treated by the volunteers of Rock Medicine, which provides free medical care at special events throughout Northern California.

Of those 44 BottleRock patients, two needed treatment during the first day of the festival (Wednesday), and 42 required medical care Thursday. All of the patients were treated on-site, and none needed to be taken to the hospital, Oldham said.

Oldham declined to provide details on specific ailments, but in an April interview with the Napa Valley Register, Oldham said most patients at outdoor music events are those who drink too much alcohol.

Other common maladies at large festivals are sprained ankles, exhaustion and, sometimes, drug overdoses, Oldham said.

Sixty volunteers will be staffing the medical tents at BottleRock every day except Saturday, when Rock Medicine will ramp up its staff to 75.

Rock Medicine has two urgent care medical tents at the festival, and the ability to treat 60 to 70 patients at a time. The organization also has a smaller tent to provide people with sunscreen, Gatorade, Tylenol and Band-Aids.

Oldham said Rock Medicine volunteers treats all patients in a non-judgmental way. The goal is to take care of the person and get them safely back to their family and friends, he said.

Rock Medicine, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, provides volunteer medical staff at more than 700 events annually including events at AT&T Park, the Oakland Coliseum, Arco Arena, and Golden Gate Park.

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Rock Medicine reports ‘mellow’ BottleRock

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