Heavy security stopped reporter, but not dealer or drugs — eight suspected overdoses at two festivals
Opposition Leader Michael Daley has slammed the decision of Hardcore Till I Die’s management to block entry to the music festival to Sunday Telegraph journalist Derrick Krusche — despite drug dealers still managing to get in. READ ABOUT HIS EXPERIENCE.
As soon as my ticket to the Hardcore Till I Die (HTID) dance festival flashed red on a screen, I knew something was wrong.
I had bought a ticket to report from inside the electronic music rave at Homebush following five deaths at music events in the past six months.
Hundreds of us shuffled through two security checkpoints — much like an international airport — before entering an enclosed semicircle where police with sniffer dogs were waiting just before 5pm.
If the dogs singled a person out, officers took that person away to be searched. I got to the third checkpoint and a staffer scanned my ticket. He said: “The ticket is void, did you buy it off someone else?”
I told him I bought it with my credit card two weeks ago in my name.
“Just go over to that stall and someone will help you,” he said.
I went to the ticket stall and a woman said: “Sometimes this happens, let me get my laptop.”
About five minutes later a burly, middle-aged man dressed in high-vis approached.
“Derrick? Management have the right to refuse entry. Do you want to speak to a media rep?” he said.
I knew then Harder Style United, the organisers of the event, blocked my ticket because I was a reporter.
I had attended a rave at Space nightclub in the city, which was organised by HSU, a week after it staged Knockout Games Of Destiny at Olympic Park, where 19-year-old Callum Brosnan died from a suspected overdose.
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I accurately reported that there was open-air drug-dealing at Space despite Mr Brosnan’s death.
After the article was published I received multiple threats from people in the hardcore music scene.
The man in the high-vis vest handed me an envelope with $137.50 in cash — the cost of a ticket — and a printed page of HSU’s policies for keeping the event supposedly safe.
A 20-year-old woman attending HTID told me yesterday drug dealing was common inside the event and dealers pushed up prices.
“If you can get them outside it’s cheaper. It’s a lot more expensive inside and you have the risk of being caught,” she said.
“Honestly, inside you could sell MDMA caps for anywhere between $25 to $50.”
MDMA tablets usually sell for around $30.
OPPOSITION LEADER: BAN IS ‘COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE’
NSW Opposition Leader Michael Daley today slammed the incident as “completely unacceptable” and said the media had a right to information.
“I think that everyone should be allowed into these festivals and if a reporter wants to go in and see what happens then I think they have every right to do that,” he said.
“I support the media’s right for access to information — that reporter should have been allowed in.”
THREE ‘CRITICAL’ DRUG CASES NOW ‘STABLE’
Three young men who were last night in critical condition in hospital after collapsing at the Hard Core Till I Die dance festival have this morning all improved to be in stable condition.
Last night, the three men in critical condition and five others were hospitalised after a litany of suspected drug overdoses at dance festivals across Sydney.
Doctors at Westmead Hospital worked overnight to save the lives of the three critical men — aged 20, 22 and 24. A fourth man, aged in his 20s, was taken to the same hospital from the same venue in a serious but stable condition.
The trio were among eight people who were stretchered from the Homebush event and a second festival, Electric Gardens, which took place in the searing heat at Centennial Park yesterday afternoon.
NSW Health said a 26-year-old man and a 38-year-old man were in a serious but stable condition after collapsing with drug-induced symptoms. A 24-year-old woman was listed as “non-critical”.
As thousands of revellers filed through checkpoints to attend both events, dozens ended up being frogmarched out again by a well-organised police operation to eradicate drug suppliers.
NSW Police said at least 49 partygoers were pulled aside by police for drug possession offences at Centennial Park, with a further 24 handed field attendance court notices and another 18 issued with criminal infringement notices.
At Homebush a further 15 people were charged with drug offences, while another 43 were ejected from the venue, police said.
A spokesman for HSU Events, the company which organised Hardcore Till I Die, said they had done their “absolute best to take care of attendees”.
Police confirmed last night that drugs had been detected inside HTID by 5.40pm.
Drug dealers managed to give security the slip, but they drew the line at a journalist.
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