Rainbow Serpent marred by sex attacks as organiser compares it to Spring Racing Carnival
The organiser of Rainbow Serpent has claimed the Spring Racing Carnival faces a ‘very similar’ issue to the drug-fuelled music festival, as police reveal the four-day party was marred by a litany of serious crimes, including two sexual assaults.
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The organiser of notorious drug-fuelled Rainbow Serpent Festival says the event is no worse than the Spring Racing Carnival, as police reveal two sexual assaults to be among the raft of serious offences from the four-day party.
Seven revellers suffered suspected overdoses and 10 drug dealers were arrested, while 16 tested positive to drug-driving and 54 people were given cautions or diversions for drug possession in the four days to Monday at Lexton, near Ballarat.
But festival organiser Tim Harvey has compared Rainbow Serpent to the Spring Racing Carnival, while blaming a zero tolerance approach to drugs for the crisis.
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“A lot of other events have exactly the same issue we have,” he told ABC radio on Tuesday.
“I think the Spring Racing Carnival probably has an issue very similar to what we have.
“I think the reporting is somewhat different.”
“Wherever there is the meeting of music, especially of an electronic kind, and people, there seems to be a slightly warped focus.”
It comes as police reveal they handed out 54 cautions or diversions for drug possession at the event, also marred by four assaults, two of them sexual.
“This kind of behaviour puts a lot of people at risk and is completely unacceptable,” Superintendent Jenny Wilson said in a statement.
“We want people to come to this event and enjoy it for what it is — a celebration of culture, music and arts.
“However the behaviour of some individuals shows that there are still some people out there willing to put themselves, and others at huge risk.”
Mr Harvey blamed the situation on “30 years of failed drug policy”.
“Our thoughts are with the individuals that are still in hospital and their families. No family should experience this,” he said.
“This is one of the things that we have been trying to address in the lead up to the festival, and we are going to address obviously post-festival as well.
“The simple fact is the broader community faces the same that we do and the festival has experienced just a fraction of those, I think there’s around 1000 accidental deaths each year due to overdose.
“The only difference seems to be that there is an expectation for the one-to-five days that the festival runs, we are able to solve this issue that I think has been created by 30 years of failed drug policy.”
Earlier, a boy preparing for VCE, a professional and a female French national were among the dealers caught cashing in on the rampant music festival drug use.
Questions have also been raised about advance police planning and resourcing for events such as Rainbow Serpent.
The Police Association has described the force’s approach to music festivals as “hopelessly inadequate”.
It is unclear how the 17-year-old VCE student was admitted to the festival, given those under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
The Herald Sun has been told of the elaborate lengths some of the traffickers take to get their product to sale at music festivals.
There have been cases of dealers travelling to venues in advance then burying drugs which are then recovered at festival time, eliminating the risk of bringing them in past police.
Many of the dealers at the Rainbow Serpent plied their wares around stages while others moved about looking for business around tent areas.
“Can I get you anything, ladies?” the Herald Sun was asked by one dealers roaming the festival with a mini-wheelie bin.
One patron was observed going from tent to tent trying to buy ketamine, a potent animal tranquilliser.
This was despite the presence of undercover police and sniffer dogs.
Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said he did not question the efforts of police on the ground but the force itself needed to do better.
“The current approach adopted is hopelessly inadequate, given the level of drug trafficking that the whole world knows occurs at events like this,” Sgt Gatt said.
He said pill-testing at festivals was not the answer.
“How is it possible that we continue to look at pill testing as the panacea to treating drug overdoses, while continuing to virtually ignore the fact that commercial operators are sanctioned to run events which continually result in drug overdoses, placing young people at significant harm?” he said.
“It beggars belief that you can continually be allowed to run an event that sees its patrons suffer life-threatening injuries.”
But Mr Harvey said
Victoria Police would not comment on whether it would be hitting Rainbow Serpent organisers with a bill.
“As per the Victoria Police (fees and charges) Regulations 2014, Victoria Police has the right to charge any event organiser for the use of police resources as determined in the Regulations,” a spokeswoman said.
“Victoria Police does not disclose the cost of engaging our services, or the private discussions held as part of the arrangements.”
The spokeswoman said public safety was a joint responsibility of event organisers and police.
An Ambulance Victoria spokesman said its resources would be partly covered by the event at a cost of $119.90 per paramedic hour.
“The costs of patient transport are borne by the individual patient who, depending on their circumstances, may be able to have them covered either through an Ambulance Victoria membership, through private health insurance or through a government concession card,” he said.
Pyrenees Shire Council mayor Robert Vance said there were no plans to shut the festival down.
Cr Vance said he did not condone or understand drug use but that the organisers had done a good job, given up to 18,000 people had attended.
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