Music festival organisers must prove event is safe before license is granted
Under a tough new regime being rolled out from March 1, music festivals will have to meet minimum safety standards akin to those imposed on pubs and clubs, giving priority to ensuring kids receive immediate on-site medical care in an emergency rather than waiting for an ambulance to arrive.
Dance festival organisers will need extra medics, wall-to-wall security and “no judgment chill-out zones” where drug-taking revellers can get help without fear of arrest, before being allowed to go ahead.
Under a tough new regime being rolled out from March 1, events will have to meet minimum safety standards akin to those imposed on pubs and clubs, giving priority to ensuring kids receive immediate on-site medical care in an emergency rather than waiting for an ambulance to arrive.
Festival organisers will also be required to say how many revellers will attend and how many water stations, doctors and security staff will be on site to prove their festival is safe.
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Based on this information, the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority will carry out a risk assessment, telling organisers what else is needed to be granted a licence.
The event will then need to be endorsed by a panel of experts, including NSW Health, police and liquor and gaming officials. Events with a poor track record will face greater oversight.
The toughening of the rules, which had been flagged but not revealed in detail, is in response to the suspected overdose deaths of five young people in as many months at dance events.
Minister for Racing Paul Toole said the new music festival licences will “have a substantial focus on health, policing and liquor issues”.
“The Government is continuing to work with industry and health experts to finalise the new licence, which will be based on detailed safety management plans with conditions targeted to the specific risks of each festival,” Mr Toole said.
The changes are based on the recommendations of the expert panel convened following two deaths at the Defcon. 1 festival in September.
The panel found existing approvals were “ad hoc” with “no common mechanism to facilitate consideration and planning around drug risk management, medical and security plans”.
The guidelines will be finalised by the end of January, Chief Medical Officer Dr Kerry Chant said.
“The guidelines do strengthen the range of harm reduction approaches at music festivals and give a framework for risk assessment and making sure we have a good understanding of the nature of risk,” Dr Chant said.
“That is dictated by the number of people attending, the age profile, looking at the history of the event previously, and environmental risks of running a festival in winter or summer. They will make it very clear about the expectations for both event organisers and medical providers.
“One of the key messages is use the chill-out space to seek help early. Please approach health staff and seek help early if you are in trouble.”
Dr Chant also stressed that young people need to look out for their friends.
“After talking to some of the young people who had a good outcome after becoming unwell at these events, they told us of the key role of friends in urging them to get help and many said ‘my best friend saved my life’,” Dr Chant said.
FEARS AS PARTY SEASON IN FULL SWING
Jack Morphet
Emergency workers are bracing for “dancemageddon” as tens of thousands of revellers descend on three major music festivals in NSW within coming weeks.
Sniffer dogs will be out in force at Saturday’s Electric Gardens electronic music festival at Centennial Parklands as police hope to stop revellers smuggling in pills.
A large scale operation will draw on police from across the city, as well as the dog unit and alcohol licensing police.
An electronic music festival held at Centennial Parklands in September, Listen Out, saw 154 charged with drug possession and five people charged with supplying drugs.
“Electric Gardens is a large scale event and there will be an appropriate police presence,” a police spokeswoman said.
The temperature is forecast to reach 31 degrees at the outdoor festival, which runs from 2pm to 10pm.
Authorities are also gearing up for Rolling Loud festival at Sydney Showground next Sunday, which has been billed as the “world’s biggest hip-hop festival”. Organisers have warned attendees “police will be conducting a drug detection operation at this event”.
Partygoers heading to Rolling Loud have also been warned by organisers not to wear gang insignia but have been assured “masks are fine but you must take them off when being asked for ID”.
Finally there is the Mountain Sounds Festival, where 49 attendees were charged for possessing prohibited drugs last year, which is held near Gosford on February 15 and 16.
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