Penrith City Council praised festival’s preparations and believed odds of drug-taking was ‘rare’

PENRITH City Council praised preparations for a dance festival with a history of drug deaths just 24 hours before two other young revellers would die from suspected overdoses. The Tele can also reveal the “Defqon” event’s DA was approved because the odds of drug-taking by concertgoers was deemed “rare”.

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THE day before a Penrith dance festival with a history of fatal overdoses left two more young revellers dead from drugs, a senior local council official wrote an email saying they were “tremendously impressed” with preparations for the event.

The Daily Telegraph can also reveal a successful development application for the Defqon.1 concert in 2015 rated the likelihood of drug taking as “rare” — despite a person having died at the event just two years prior.

Penrith City Council yesterday refused to answer questions about whether it took any action to improve safety at the event after drug deaths at the 2013 and 2015 events.

But The Telegraph can reveal council staff praised the event in an internal email which claimed that it had pumped $30 million into the local economy.

A screen grab from vision of the Defqon Music Festival over the weekend. Picture: Q-Dance

An estimated 30,000 ravers descended on the Sydney International Regatta Centre on Saturday for 12 hours of hardcore techno music and an extravagant light show.

Joseph Pham, 23, and 21-year-old Victorian woman Diana Nguyen died of suspected drug overdoses, Ms Nguyen fiance proposed on a trip to Hawaii celebrating her 21st birthday in April.

Joseph Pham suffered a heart attack from a suspected drug overdose. Picture: Facebook

Three other revellers remain in hospital, one in a critical condition. At least 700 people sought medical help at the concert.

Just a day earlier, a Penrith City Council staffer emailed councillors notifying them that he and a colleague had been given a tour of the festival site by a Defqon Australia representative.

“We were both tremendously impressed with some of the statistics and other aspects of Defqon,” he wrote.

“The organiser believes that the Defqon1 events have contributed over $30 million to the local economy.

“This year’s event will be broadcast worldwide over 5 hours and ‘Penrith’ will feature prominently in the broadcast. The European Defqon, when broadcast, drew 5 million viewers.” He noted “there can be some impacts from these major events but there are also a lot of significant benefits”.

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Excerpts of the emails obtained by The Daily Telegraph.

Saturday’s deaths were not the first at Defqon in Penrith. In 2013 James Munro, 23, died of a suspected ecstasy overdose, and 26-year-old Nigel Pauljevic died there in 2015.

A Penrith Council spokesman said events of Defqon. 1’s size go through a “rigorous preparation process”. He said “every precaution was undertaken” by organisers to make it drug-free.

DA records lodged by Defqon organisers in May 2015 show the “likelihood” of the “consumption of illicit drugs” at the festival was rated an “E” for “rare” — meaning “the risk is not known to occur”. The “inherent” risk of drug-taking was rated “high” and the “residual risk level” was reduced to “medium risk”.

This was despite Mr Munro’s death at the festival in 2013, and 83 people being charged with drug offences at the event the following year.

Questions put to Penrith Council with pictures of Nigel Pauljevic (top) and James Munro (bottom) who died at other events.

Greens and Labor members are advocating for pill testing. Police Minister Troy Grant slammed the idea as a “quality control measure for drug dealers”.

“I find it quite sick that they’re preying and politicising on the misery of these poor families who are dealing with untold grief,” Mr Grant said.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said pill testing was a soft approach that “green-lights use of illegal drugs ”.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the government was “examining all our options” after vowing on Sunday the festival would never return to NSW.

“Four people have died at this event since 2013. That sort of track record is not OK by us,” she said.

“This isn’t about stopping people having fun. It is about stopping people dying.”