Vivek Singh Pandher collapsed at the Paradiso Festival.
AB Wire
NEW YORK: Vivek Singh Pandher, 22, a student from Ludhiana at the engineering school at the University of British Columbia, died after attending the Paradiso Festival in Washington state.
Pandher was at the electronic dance music festival at the Gorge the weekend of June 27th when he had to go to a hospital in Vancouver, reported News1130.
“He was found to be in very serious condition. Because he was from BC, he was transported back to BC on the 30th of June to Vancouver General Hospital and was admitted there but unfortunately things just did not go well and he did finally pass away on Sunday,” Coroner Barb McLintock, was quoted as saying. “Definitely issues around heat exhaustion, heat stroke, hypothermia as there was with other people there apparently. Remember that was the weekend that was so very hot even here and I would imagine down in central Washington it was even hotter.”
Pandher’s father Jaswant Singh Zafar is a renowned poet and prose writer.
The sheriff’s office confirms it is investigating a death as a result of the festival but won’t say anything else.
The Province reported Pandher’s final act of donating his organs and tissues to help seven people is emblematic of the way he lived his life.
“If something needed to be done he was there for everyone, and made everyone feel very alive and loved,” said his younger sister, Kirad Pandher, describing her brother as a responsible person and role model.
Family friend Rupinder Kahlon said Pandher suffered heat stroke as a result of extremely high temperatures during the festival and his heart stopped. He suffered brain damage due to a lack of oxygen.
A spokesman for the Grant County Sheriff’s Department, which is investigating Pandher’s death, confirmed that temperatures were “in the triple digits” Fahrenheit, but could not provide details about the circumstances surrounding Pandher’s death, the Province reported.
Pandher was young, but had accomplished a lot and was well known in his hometown of Ludhiana, Punjab.
He was written up in the local paper for riding his bicycle — unusual in a city where people drive expensive cars and motorcycles. He and a group of artists started a graffiti movement and he had exhibited his photography at a local gallery. He was also a member of a rock band, playing guitar and singing.
“He was a very charismatic person,” said Kirad Pandher, who travelled to Vancouver from India with her family. “Whomsoever he talked to, he left a really good impression on them.”
Pandher was set to graduate next year from the University of B.C., where he was studying electrical engineering. While going to school, he took photos and was a videographer.
Kirad Pandher said her brother was an inspiration and kept a list of things he wanted to do, such as skydiving, and checked them off as he completed them.
“He lived completely and fully. He wrote that he was in the one per cent of people who have that kind of happiness and satisfaction in life,” she said. “He encouraged other people to do what they wanted to do.”
The Tribune reported Pandher, along with his friends, painted a few graffiti on city walls with social messages in 2012. He was spotted in some music evenings as he used to run a music band “Zonks”.
Vivek also displayed his photography in an exhibition along with Ankur Patar, a digital artist. His friends know him as a committed artist.
“He was too creative and a natural artist. He was a nature lover and conscious for environment. He belonged to a well-off family, but he used only bicycle to move in city. Vivek never flaunted his upbringing and did everything from the core of heart,” said Harp Farmer, videographer, Vivek’s friend.
“He had a vision about life. He did several projects of videography and photography but never for money. He wanted to preserve the heritage and culture of Punjab. He initiated ‘Punjabi Poetica’ visual project and recorded several famous poets of Punjabi. He was a different personality, who used to write letters to his friends in this era of technology,” said Harnavbir Singh, a well-known wedding photographer.
Pandher did sill photography with some Punjabi movies and assisted a renowned film maker recently in Canada, the Tribune report said.
Mann Singh Toor, an artist said: “We have lost a talented young man. He was an amazing photographer. It is a shock for the literary and the art lovers of the city.”