Police ‘disappointed’ with number of drug detections at Yours & Owls
While police praised the majority of festival-goers for their good behaviour at Yours & Owls, they were disappointed in the number of people who tried to sneak drugs into the event.
Illawarra Star
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Almost 30 people were found to be in possession of illegal drugs at the annual two-day Yours and Owls Festival over the weekend.
While police said they were happy with the behaviour of the majority of revellers, they were disappointed in the number of people who were found with illicit substances.
“Despite the strong police presence being advertised we still had 27 drug detections [over the two days],” Wollongong Police District Inspector Geoff Olsen said.
“We were happy with most of the behaviour but we are not hiding the fact we are looking at illicit drugs and are disappointed that people are still running the risk.”
Yours and Owls and Sydney’s Listen Out Festival were the first two events of the NSW music festival season, and had a high-visibility police operation both inside and outside the festival gates.
The two-day Illawarra festival, which saw around 20,000 people descended on Stuart Park, had a heavy presence of police, security guards and paramedics, in a bid to avoid fatal drug overdoses that have occurred at other festivals.
In Wollongong several people were transported to hospital over the two days, while only a small portion of those were drug related.
While police were disappointed with this year’s drug detections, they were much lower than that of the 2018 festival, where 43 people were nabbed for drug offences.
Acts featured on the Wollongong line-up included Amy Shark, Golden Features, Hot Dub Time Machine, Sneaky Sound System, Thundamentals, Vera Blue, Ruel and more.