Coroner looking for answers in death at Electric Daisy Carnival

Coroner officials on Sunday morning were trying to determined what killed a 24-year-old California man, who died Saturday morning after attending a massive electronic music festival in Las Vegas.

Jennifer Jacobs, a senior investigator for the Clark County Coroner, said an autopsy was underway on the body of Montgomery Tsang. The results of the examination were expected Sunday afternoon, she said.

If the cause of death cannot be determined from the examination, toxicology tests will likely be required.

Tsang, from San Leandro, collapsed outside the Las Vegas Motor Speedway shortly after sunrise Saturday after attending the Electric Daisy Carnival -- a three-day, dusk to dawn event featuring marquee performers and, this year, drew more than 130,000 fans.

He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital just before 6:15 a.m., Jacobs said.

It is the latest in a series of deaths at the electronic music festival in recent years.

A spokeswoman for Insomniac, the company that stages the festival, said in a statement it was “deeply saddened” by the news of Tsang’s death. The show would continue through its scheduled end Monday, Jennifer Forkish added.

EDC, once home to a fringe group of electronic music fans, has ballooned into a national event since it was founded in Los Angeles in the late 1990s. A 15-year-old girl died of an Ecstasy overdose at the event in 2010, ultimately leading to the move to Las Vegas. Two more people died at the event in 2012.

Insomniac is not the only backer of electronic music festivals to grapple with deaths and injuries. Last year, the final day of New York City’s Electric Zoo festival, by Made Events, was canceled after two people died and four others were hospitalized.

The decision to end that event early was made after New York City officials recommended cancellation due to “serious health risks.” They said at the time that the drug MDMA, which can exacerbate pre-existing heart conditions or cause a body’s core temperature to rise, appeared to be involved.

Twitter: @joelrubin