Death dance hit list: Festivals face closure under crackdown

Music festivals with a shocking drug death record will be put on a hit list to be shut down under new government guidelines. Festival owners will have their events placed on an “extreme risk” watchlist if a patron dies from a drug overdose.

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Festival owners will have their events placed on an “extreme risk” watchlist if a patron dies from a drug overdose as the State Government moves to strengthen festival guidelines.

Operators with a chequered history of drug and alcohol incidents resulting in death will be forced to fulfil stricter mitigation measures before an event is approved by NSW health.

The state’s chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said she would strengthen guidelines which determine how many paramedics were on the ground after 19-year-old girl Alex Ross-King died of an overdose at FOMO music festival in Western Sydney.

Alex Ross-King died of an overdose at FOMO music festival.

New guidelines drafted by NSW Health require festivals to reveal whether drug taking is “possible” or “highly likely” at their event.

NSW Health then takes into consideration the number of revellers, the distance a festival is to a hospital and whether the event has a history of drug-related deaths.

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Based on that information the festival is given a risk category — with “extreme” being the highest — which forces the festival to respond with more staff, water facilities and chill-out zones.

Festival goers at the FOMO music festival where a 19-year-old girl died. Picture: David Swift.

Events that are too dangerous cannot go ahead.

The Daily Telegraph can also reveal that Dr Chant met with organisers of the FOMO festival last night to begin a lengthy debrief which will determine whether organises broke any rules.

“These guidelines were a first step in strengthening and increasing the harm reduction messaging,” Dr Chant said.

“We are committed to continually strengthening the licensing scheme … we take this very seriously and we will learn if there are room for improvements.

“Those guidelines were put out there and need to be further worked on but the concept is if we know an event is associated with death then that has got to increase your concerns.

“If you have an event with a pattern of one death every year ever 10 years you learn that is unusual.

Festival owners will have their events placed on an “extreme risk” watchlist if a patron dies. Picture: David Swift.

“We will refine these guidelines and improve on them but the key driver is the number of people at the event and the age profile and the nature of the event which gives an indication to drug use.”

Dr Chant said that it would take at least a week to assess the FOMO festival but promised the debrief would be more “intense” because of the fatality.

“We take this very seriously and that will be planned and we will learn if there are room for improvements,” she said.

“I also want to offer my condolences to the family I can’t imagine the tragedy of losing a child in the circumstances. I want people to know we are taking this very seriously.”

Dave Rubin, who is running Ultra Music Festival Australia next month at Parramatta Park, said everyone involved in organising festivals needed to do better.

“Clearly the message is not being heard,” he said.

What MDMA does to your body

“Music festivals are places of entertainment, joy and celebration and it should not be a place of tragedy and heartache.

“Together all parties concerned need to look at all the options to provide a safer environment. We all need to take responsibility of our own actions.

“We also have to understand and acknowledge that we can’t control all of the choices our patrons personally make, and we feel there is a sense of opportunity now to help enable them to make better decisions.

“Together all parties concerned need to look at all the options to provide a safer environment. “We all need to take responsibility of our own actions.”

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the community needed to come together to send the message that drug use was dangerous.

“Kids are making a deadly choice and as much as we all wish they wouldn’t, it is

unlikely everyone will heed medical advice but as a community, we must continue to

do all we can to get the message through to as many as we can that drugs can and

do kill,” he said.

Yesterday NSW Poisons Information Centre toxicologist Professor Andrew Dawson revealed that drug users were actually dying from internal body heat which spikes when MDMA is consumed.

“Normally, what will happen to people is that they will often get increasingly agitated, they can then become confused andthat’s often a sign they already have a temperature,” he said.

“They may not always be aware that they’re actually hot. Once your temperature starts going above about 41 degrees, you’reat a temperature where you start cooking an egg. So, the proteins in the body start poaching and you get multiple organs shutdown. And that’s actually what causes the death.

“Patients can very rapidly deteriorate. They can get a temperature of 39 or 40 degrees and rapidly within 10 — 15 minutesto 40 to 43 degrees. And that’s life threatening. So it can be back that fast. So it’s very important to understand that individualsmay not be aware that they’re actually unwell. It’s really important that bystanders and friends are looking out to make certainthat people are all okay because the individual may not realise you’re unwell.”