22-year old Vivek Pandher died in Vancouver on Sunday July 5 after being found unresponsive at the Paradiso music festival in Wenatchee, Washington.
According to B.C. Coroners Service spokesperson Barb McLintock, the exact cause of death is still under investigation, but was likely due to the extreme temperatures in the George Amphitheatre where the festival was taking place.
"The one thing we will say is we know...[that] one of the issues was clearly going to be heat. It was very very hot down there and hyperthermia is definitely one of the possibilities," said McLintock.
"He was found unresponsive, I think it was on the 27th of June, was taken to hospital in Wenatchee, where they realized he was very seriously ill and he was then transferred back up to Vancouver General [Hospital] on the 30th," said McLintock.
Chief Deputy of Special Operations Ryan Rectenwald, did not know who found Pandher, but said that there is a detective is assigned to the death who is following up.
Pandher was majoring in electrical engineering and was supposed to graduate next year. According to his Facebook page, he was also a videographer at the UBC School of Music and video producer at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.
Jagmeet Nagi, who met Panhdher in university, said he and Pandher started a video production and photography company together.
"He was the kind of guy [who] was full of life," said Nagi. "He was the one who [would] always make plans, you know, let's go there and this and that. He was the coordinator, he was really the heart of everything."
"He's one of those very inspiring people," said Aadil Brar, who met Pandher in his first year of University. "He would hug you, he would just make you his own, that was his nature.... He was very social that way and then he could mix into any sort of [social] circle."
Vivek also had a passion for photography, having just started working for Portraits of UBC.
When asked what Brar would miss about Pandher, Brar said "Everything, it’s not just one thing… but the only thing that I never, just so frustrating, he never took a picture of me. I had been annoying him to take a picture of me and now I feel that, that’s all void."
Brar has written a poem in memory of his friend.
Although McLintock said that this is the first death at a music festival that she has dealt with this year in British Columbia, this marks the second death this year for the American festival. According to the The Spokesman Review a 22-year-old Portland man, Beau B. Brooks, died on June 28.
Another festival goer died in 2013. 21-year-old Patrick D. Witkowski died from a combination of dehydration in the severe heat and methamphetamine intoxication, according to the Spokesman Review. According to Rectenwald, Witowski was a graduate of the University of Washington.
“We have concerns about every festival…. We knew the temperatures were going to be above 100 and we knew that when you throw in festival, heat, drinking alcohol and kids that are at times not responsible for taking care of themselves as far of bringing enough water, that definitely concerns us,” said Rectenwald.
This article was updated at 10:40 a.m. on July 7 to include comments from Nagi, Brar and Rectenwald.
A previous version of this article said Pandher was a UBC graduate. In fact, he was supposed to graduate next year. The Ubyssey regrets the error.
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