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"We concert producers have lost credibility, just like what happened to the banks when they kept the money of their account-holders," Fernando Benebeña, the organiser of the country's biggest rock festival, told IPS. He was referring to the late 2001 freeze on bank accounts and collapse of the financial system, and the failure of many Argentine savers to recuperate their money. Benebeña is organising "Gesell Rock 2005", to take place Jan. 20-23 in Villa Gesell, a resort town in the eastern province of Buenos Aires, some 500 km south of the capital. Around 30 rock bands and singers will perform in the festival, which is expected to draw perhaps 50,000 fans. León Gieco and Charly García, Argentina's best-known rock musicians, and popular bands like Ataque 77 and Catupecu Machu will take part in the festival, whose publicity is for the first time putting an emphasis on the safety offered to concert-goers, rather than on the quality and variety of the participating bands. "Every afternoon there will be guided visits for parents who want to see the installations at the drive-in cinema where the concerts will be held," said Benebeña. And despite the fact that the drive-in is an open space, maps clearly marking the emergency exits and the location of the fire extinguishers and health posts have already been widely distributed. This new concern with safety has arisen in the wake of the Dec. 30 fire that destroyed the República Cromagnon rock club near the centre of Buenos Aires, when a fan shot off a flare during a concert by the Callejeros rock band, and the foam on the ceiling caught fire. Emergency exits that were padlocked shut and the enormous crowd, which far exceeded the total number permitted by the club's licence, drove the death toll up to 189, with hundreds more injured. There will be around 130 police officers posted at the rock festival in Villa Gesell every night, as well as a similar number of private security guards, along with fire trucks, helicopters, ambulances, emergency response personnel and rescue workers, and two field hospitals. In addition, a team of lifeguards has been hired to patrol the beach, even though it is located over half a kilometre from the spot where the festival will be held. Concert producer Daniel Grinbank said the tragedy "was like a Sept. 11 for the world of show business in Argentina" - a reference to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington. There is a consensus that nothing will be the same anymore in the rock music industry in Argentina: neither on the stage, backstage, or in the audience. "The deaths in Cromagnon marked the end of an era; they are the curb on our arrogance, our cockiness, our blind belief that nothing can happen to us," rock journalist Eduardo Fabregat wrote this week in the youth supplement of the local daily Pagina 12. Since the disaster, all of the country's rock groups have taken part in the soul search over the need to improve the often sub-standard safety conditions in the discotheques and clubs where underground or lesser-known bands are hired to play. Although rock bands have accepted their portion of the responsibility, they say the blame must also be shared with the audience (fireworks are specifically banned during rock concerts), unscrupulous business owners who do not respect safety standards, and local authorities who fail to enforce safety norms. Far from rejecting authority and the police, the rock bands now say they are fully in favour of stepping up security at concerts, in order to guarantee that these gatherings are fun and peaceful, rather than death traps. Some musicians have blamed other bands for over-selling concert tickets and refusing to cut short their shows even when fans are shooting off flares and other fireworks that make it difficult for the rest of the audience to see the show, and to even breathe properly in some cases. Small fires had broken out in earlier shows, prior to the Dec. 30 disaster, and audience members had fainted or been burnt by fireworks. But these isolated incidents failed to put a stop to the unsafe practices that triggered the worst non-natural catastrophe in Argentine history. According to all accounts, the followers of Callejeros and other underground rock bands in Argentina are similar to rowdy soccer fans in that they chant aggressive slogans against other bands, and fights frequently break out. They also have a penchant for flares and other fireworks. "Rock has to be an environment that wakes young people up, instead of anaesthetising them, and the bands are responsible for that," said a member of the group Carajo, who called for "re-educating the public" and urging them from the stage not to launch flares, which pose a risk to everyone present. Fireworks are banned in closed spaces in Argentina. But despite the warnings and even searches of concert-goers, the followers of certain rock groups often sneak them in, and they have become part of the show. "Shooting off a flare in a closed place is dangerous, but I have to admit that when you're in a concert it seems fun, it's like it forms part of the show, the party," Callejeros fan Luciano Bergara told IPS. Other groups argue that the authorities and business owners must guarantee safety during concerts, as they do during other cultural events like plays, movies or dance recitals. Some bands complain that a lack of support from the government and club owners often force them to perform in precarious working conditions. "Someone in the government should pay attention to us and help us to have decent places where we can earn a living, not lose our lives," Juan Tordó, a musician with the blues group La Mississippi, told the Página 12 youth supplement. And there are rock fans who say the practice of shooting off flares has to come to an end. "The musicians aren't going to be any less authentic 'rockeros' because they stop a show when things get out of hand, or because they give several concerts, to keep so many people from piling into one show," said one fan. "People must become aware of this risk, and bands have to talk to their followers, to keep this from happening again," said Benebeña. "It's not a nice thing to have to pat down concert-goers, even the women, as they come into a show, but things have taken a 180-degree turn and now we'll always have to do it," he added.