Field Day at the Domain: Where even drug deaths can’t stop the party
Six people have been charged with drug supply offences after they were detected carrying illicit substances including MDMA and the powerful animal sedative ketamine at Field Day. It comes after an explosive inside look of the festival culture was exposed by The Daily Telegraph. PHOTOS, LIST OF ARRESTS AND CHARGES.
NSW
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Smuggling four caps filled with powerful party drug MDMA into the event, the woman was more than ready to cut loose.
“You want the high and the charge — it’s a long day,” she said.
Welcome to Sydney’s Field Day — where nothing is seemingly off limits.
The woman who spoke to The Daily Telegraph said she used two condoms to hide the drugs inside her body before passing sniffer dogs and police into the one-day festival attended by 28,000 people in The Domain yesterday.
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And she was one of thousands there for one main reason — to take drugs.
Just days after Joshua Tam became the fourth person in as many months to die of a suspected drug overdose at a music event in NSW, it quickly became clear that the fatalities have not deterred many from dicing with death.
Inside the venue, people openly asked their friends for cocaine as others reminded mates to drink plenty of water as their ecstasy rush kicked in.
Revellers, some dressed in outrageously revealing clothing, began filtering into The Domain after midday.
The smell of cannabis soon spread among the dance floors by 2pm and people could be seen taking MDMA.
“There are so many people on so much different stuff,” one young man in a pink T-shirt said. “Do you have cocaine?” his friend asked.
Another drug-addled man drawled: “I love you”, as he walked past.
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There was a heavy police presence outside but inside the venue everyone seemed free to do what they wanted.
Police officers walked around — posing for photos and selfies — but no sniffer dogs could be seen during the seven hours the Telegraph was inside.
Police inside the venue admitted they had seen people under the influence.
As huge crowds descended on the Centre Field stage to catch headline acts including British DJ Duke Dumont and US rapper Cardi B later in the day, a smaller number of festival-goers surrounded “Left Field” to immerse themselves in the dance music.
“I feel so good,” one woman said as she rejoined her friends beside the dance floor. “I’ve never been so happy in my life … we need water,” another said.
Another man said drug use was common.
“It’s a bit of everything, there’s acid, you see some coke and mostly it’s just (MDMA) caps,” he said. “It’s pretty low-key, it’s usually in the mosh under cover.”
But as another person lost their life to drugs on New Year’s Day at the Beyond the Valley festival in Victoria, the woman who boasted of smuggling in MDMA said she wasn’t fazed.
“It doesn’t really deter me, deterrence doesn’t work, you only have to look at prohibition — where there’s a will there’s a way,” she said.
She said MDMA was rampant at Field Days.
Commonly known as ecstasy, it is taken either in pill form or crystal form in capsules.
“If you go into the female bathrooms you see all the condoms (on the floor) and think ‘holy s …, everybody is on it’,” she said. “People are usually quite subtle, they’ll go into the bathrooms — you can hear people snorting.”
She said that the large police presence outside the The Domain had not scared her off sneaking the party drugs in — and her friends were even more brazen.
“It’s actually not that detectable — dogs aren’t that reliable,” she said.
“I smuggle them in, I put them inside me because I’m neurotic — you wrap them up and have two condoms.
“But I have friends who just put them in their pockets and walk in. It’s inherently overwhelming for the dogs, because if you think about it, there’s tens of thousands of people flocking to the event. A lot of (drug seizures) come when dogs get gestured to go towards people by police.”
Although she got in unscathed, others did not. By 10pm police had stopped 150 people for drug offences.
One woman in her 20s told The Telegraph late last night that she had swallowed MDMA caps at 9.30pm and did not feel nervous taking them because there was “not much police” compared with previous Field Day events.
She said Josh Tam’s death had not deterred her from taking drugs: “Not really, personally where I get my stuff from it’s from people I trust.”
She said she saw one young woman being carried away by medical crews at 4.30pm.
“Her body was limp,” she said.
FIELD DAY ARRESTS AND CHARGES
A total of 194 people were charged with drug offences — some were caught with the powerful animal sedative ketamine — at the Field Day Music festival in The Domain, police said.
Four people were also rushed to hospital with drug-related health fears as five festival deaths across the country this summer failed to deter many of the 28,000 New Year’s Day revellers from taking drugs.
Ketamine and large amounts of MDMA capsules were seized as 155 people were arrested during a major drug dog operation, six people were charged for drug supply while 39 people were charged as part of the overall drug operation.
Among the major seizures were a 19-year-old Eagle Vale man who allegedly had 55 MDMA capsules, a 21-year-old woman from Kellyville Ridge who had 40 capsules.
Police also ejected 41 people for intoxication and issued two people for criminal infringement notices for failing to quit licensed premises.
A court attendance notice was also given to one 21-year-old man for allegedly assaulting a woman.
PREMIER STANDS FIRM ON PILL TESTING
Police confirmed on Tuesday night that four people were taken to hospital from the Field Day event — one with a suspected back injury.
Despite police warning revellers in the lead up to the New Year’s Day festival to steer clear of drugs, some festival-goers didn’t seem to care.
“There is a clear association with illicit drug use at those festivals and the worst outcomes are being seen at times,” Acting Deputy Commissioner Mark Walton said.
But inside, people at the festival’s medical centre continued to dance as they waited for their friends to be treated by medics.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian indicated on Tuesday she would not change her view in relation to pill testing at music festivals.
While in Western Sydney visiting one of the first babies born this year, Ms Berejiklian encouraged festival-goers to enjoy themselves but warned against taking illegal drugs.
“It can have lethal consequences for you, your family and for the people around you … I can’t make my message stronger than that,” she said.
Earlier this week, NSW Labor leader Michael Daley signalled a shift in his party’s policy in favour of pill testing at festivals but the Premier suggested she would not budge.
Asked whether she would consider a review of pill testing, Ms Berejiklian said: “I don’t believe it’s OK to normalise drug-taking which is illegal — it is not the right thing to do but it’s also such a lethal hazard.
“As the Premier of this state, my first and foremost responsibility is to keep the community as safe as we can and I don’t take that responsibility lightly.
“If there’s anything I can do to protect human life we’ll do that — but to give people a false sense of security that a pill is safe when it could be safe for them but absolutely lethal for a friend of theirs … we don’t believe that is the right thing to do.”
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