Shutting music festivals is not the answer

If police and politicians haven’t fixed society’s drug problem, how can festival organisers, asks Scott Carbines. Penalising thousands of people who just want to enjoy music is a knee jerk reaction to a complex issue.

The best music festivals are a vibrant vision of what the world could be like if everyone cared about each other a little bit more and should be celebrated not demonised.

They provide safe spaces and outlets for expression and creativity for many and promote inclusivity and respect.

Despite this, even music festivals which are well and responsibly run are attacked by politicians and police intent on demonising them, and who fail to see what they offer.

Victoria Police has told Rainbow Serpent to clean up drug use at the event or face being banned, while New South Wales’ Bohemian Beatfreaks and Rabbits Eat Lettuce sister festivals have been driven over the border to Queensland by a police force which seems intent on shutting them down.

Rainbow Serpent deserves to be treasured alongside the Australian Open, Melbourne Comedy Festival and other major events that make Victoria a global cultural hot spot.

People come from all over the world to appreciate the amazing and diverse art, music, discussions and workshops outside the tiny community of Lexton at the end of January each year.

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Rainbow Serpent revellers keep it cool at last month’s event outside Beaufort in Victoria.

International and local artists consistently say it’s their favourite festival to play, while people from around the country, state and nearby rural towns come together.

The indigenous community is treated with the utmost respect in a place where everyone can learn about and celebrate our country’s traditional culture.

Pyrenees Mayor Robert Vance told Ballarat radio station 3BA in the lead up to this year’s festival that the 22-year-old event “early days... had its teething problems, but from a council perspective we feel that we have it as well policed and run as you can possibly get”.

He said the only thing that disappointed him was the drug scene but added “when you’ve got more than 15,000 people there you can’t tell me they’re all popping pills”.

Mr Vance thought pill testing “would be a smart move” and was “possibly the way to go”.

There are drugs at every major event, other long weekend festivities and throughout the wider community on a daily basis.

Two people reportedly overdosed within just hours of each other on Australia Day on Melbourne’s Chapel St.

If police targeted any number of more socially acceptable major events in the same way they targeted festivals, it seems likely they’d find plenty of attendees with drugs.

To point the finger at organisers and tell them to clean up drug use or face being banned is unrealistic and unfair.

The Bohemian Beatfreaks Festival has moved from NSW across the border to Queensland with organisers claiming NSW crackdowns made it too difficult to hold their event there.

Police have obviously failed to do this in society generally, so why should festival organisers be expected to completely stamp out drug use where the authorities haven’t?

A new, rational approach aimed at truly minimising the drug-related risks for music festival attendees — and indeed the wider community — is vitally needed.

Nobody at a festival wants to see young people carted off on stretchers, nobody thinks it’s okay, and nobody thinks it’s not a serious issue.

But there were seven medical transports for incidents related to drugs at Rainbow Serpent, representing 0.03 per cent of Rainbow’s 18,000 attendees. Just 0.5 per cent were arrested or issued with diversion notices.

For those for whom no amount of warnings or threats of arrest will work, experts from leading health groups agree that pill testing is part of the solution. Pill testing has the double effect of analysing the substance the person is about to put in their body, but also forcing them to have contact with informed health workers who can educate them about wider issues in an environment where their health is the priority, as opposed to their illegal activity.

Rainbow Serpent organisers know this is “still not where we need to be as a community” and work hard each year to provide the best education, safest environment and top care possible.

There has never been an ambulance transfer from the Rabbits Eat Lettuce and Bohemian Beatfreaks (festivals) organisers have put on at their Kippenduff site in New South Wales. Events have been held there safely since 2015.

Organisers won the right to continue at the site in court after NSW Police tried to stop them, but they were slapped with a near $200,000 quote for policing services for the event when they made the legal challenge. This was up from an earlier quote of $16,000, Sydney Criminal Lawyers state.

NSW’s Mountain Sounds Festival. Rural music festivals often bring economic benefits to rural communities.

NSW Police is now appealing the ruling in the festival’s favour in the Supreme Court.

For now, the events will remain across the border with an uncertain future in their home state and huge associated legal costs to pay.

Festival organisers posted: “The current political state of play in NSW is not conducive to the festival industry and we feel that to ensure we can provide the best event and experience possible moving to Queensland for at least the time being is the best decision for all involved.”

Meanwhile, the Central Coast’s Mountain Sounds festival has just significantly downsized its line-up and number of stages citing “current increased pressure around safety, licensing and security”.

The fact is, most music festivals are full of people who just want to dance and enjoy themselves with like-minded people.

If the festivals were effectively shut down, those people who take drugs there would instead be taking them at clubs, parties and at home, and meanwhile, those thousands of music fans would lose the events they cherish just as much as other Australians love the likes of the Grand Prix, the Spring Racing Carnival and the Polo, and rural communities miss out on the economic boost they provide.

Scott Carbines is a News Corp journalist.

@scottcarbines

Originally published as Shutting music festivals is not the answer