A Syracuse University alumnus died at the Electric Zoo music festival Saturday morning, leading to the cancellation of the last day of the festival.

Jeff Russ, 23, graduated in 2012.

He went to the festival with several of his fraternity brothers and friends, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

Electric Zoo is a three-day event held during Labor Day weekend featuring electronic dance music, including acts such as Avicii, Tiesto and Krewella.

Russ last tweeted a photo of the festival’s Group Therapy Stage on Friday at 8:43 p.m., less than seven hours before he died at Harlem Hospital. EMS workers rushed him to the hospital from Randall’s Island, where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, according to the NYPD.

Causes of death have yet to determined, but it appears that MDMA — also known as ecstasy or molly — was involved, according to a statement released by the Office of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Another attendee died, which city officials also said appeared to involve MDMA.

The event’s organizers canceled the music festival’s last day due to “serious health risks.”

On the Electric Zoo website the promoters issued a statement shortly after, deciding to cancel the festival, sending their “deepest condolences” to the victims’ families.

Russ’ death triggered a reaction throughout the EDM world on social media, with the very disc jockeys he looked forward to seeing tweeting their condolences about his death.

Tiesto tweeted on Sunday: “My thoughts are with the family and friends of Jeffrey Russ and Olivia Rotondo…”

Russ had planned for months to go to Randall’s Island in New York City with his friends, said his sister Melissa Russ.

She said he loved electronic dance music, and was excited to go to Electric Zoo.

“He went to almost all the EDM events,” she said. “He and his friends from Syracuse had been counting down for months.”

alng@syr.edu

Published on September 1, 2013 at 5:26 pm

Contact Alfred: alng@syr.edu

@alfredwkng