With regular music festivals, people can more easily seek help or advice about drug and alcohol or mental health issues. But with drive-ins we need to be creative to minimise harms.
‘Pingers’ usually contain MDMA. But assuming you know exactly what’s in them can be dicey.
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Drug slang can help researchers understand drug trends. But if you’re taking a drug called by a street name, make sure you know what it is.
If NSW takes on the coroner’s recommendations, it will be among the most innovative and evidence-based states in Australia on drug policy.
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A person’s drug experience can be influenced by many different things, such as heat, access to water and dosage.
Inside a strip search booth used at music festivals. New research has found strip searches have increased 20 fold in the last 12 years.
Obtained by Redfern Legal Centre from NSW Police Force under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW)
In a non-policing context, having to perform such acts would be a serious assault. This is why strip searches are meant to be a last resort and only used in serious and urgent circumstances.
The average festival goer is young, white, well educated and employed.
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Most drug use among Australian festival goers appears to be occasional and isn’t problematic. But a small group experience higher rates of drug-related harms.
Abandoned tents after a festival: definitely not going to charity.
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From the hippie heaven of the 1970s to the massive mainstream event it is now, Glastonbury has always found a way to fuse popular culture with a potent political message.
New research into pill testing at festivals shows not everyone reacts to a test result the way you’d expect.
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New research shows some festival goers are willing to take a dodgy pill regardless of the test result. So, let’s use pill testing to educate them and others about reducing their risk.
Festivals can offer great exposure for smaller acts, but the competition for slots is fierce.
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Live performances account for more than 40 percent of their income, while profits from streaming and record sales amount to only 5 percent of their earnings.
The use of drug dogs leads to riskier drug-taking at festivals.
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Many women do not feel safe at music festivals, citing the particular combination of big crowds and alcohol and drug intake making them particularly wary.
Labour’s big fun day ended up being for the few, not the many.
Music festivals tend to be geared toward young audiences, and may constitute the site of sexual harassment and assault against younger women.
AAP/Damian Shaw