Revellers overdose on illicit drugs at Hardmission Festival at Flemington Racecourse

A teenage girl is among eight people in a critical condition following a mass MDMA overdose at a Melbourne rave, but the government says we mustn’t “jump to assumptions” about the cause.

It’s believed partygoers overdosed on methyl​enedioxy​methamphetamine, commonly known as MDMA, at Hardmission Festival. Picture: Instagram

Eight revellers were put into induced comas after overdosing on ecstasy at a Flemington Racecourse rave.

The mass overdose ­occurred over four hours at electronic music event Hardmission Festival on Saturday.

It is believed the ravers overdosed on methylenedioxymethamphetamine, commonly known as MDMA.

A teenage girl and a woman were rushed to Footscray Hospital, while a woman and two men were taken to St Vincent’s Hospital.

Two men, believed to be aged in their 20s, were taken to Royal Melbourne Hospital, a woman, aged in her 20s, went to Sunshine Hospital, and a man, also aged in his 20s, was taken to The Austin.

Yet major events minister Steve Dimopoulos said he wouldn’t “jump to assumptions” about whether a bad batch was responsible for the mass overdose.

A reveller holding up his phone with the word ‘caps?’ on the screen.

Thousands of revellers packed Flemington Racecourse on Saturday.

Mr Dimopoulos said the government would instead wait for more information from the poisons centre to determine the cause.

“Rather than jump to assumptions in terms of was it something in the pills, was it a reaction, or was it something specific with different individuals — there may be different answers relating to different individuals,” he told reporters on Monday.

Mr Dimopoulos said he was unaware when the government was first notified of the major medical episode which saw nine young people raced to hospitals across Melbourne.

“It was disheartening to hear and our thoughts go out to those individuals,” he said.

“I want to remind all Victorians to be very careful what you put into your body. If you go and enjoy a dance party without having to resort to things you don’t know what you are putting in your body.”

A woman who attended the rave told the Herald Sun the heat was “overbearing”.

“They had the back of the structure closed, which trapped a lot of the heat inside,” she said.

“While I was sober at this event, I even struggled with the heat and felt nauseous when inside watching the production for too long.”

The woman said she believed the hot temperature would have contributed to the overdoses.

“There were quite a few police patrolling the area ensuring the safety of patrons, however there were still overdoses happening,” she said.

“While I don’t know anyone who overdosed ... I can only assume that the heat had a large impact on the amount of drugs taken by those who did.”

The woman said revellers usually smuggle their own drugs into the venue or buy them from dealers at the event.

“Drug taking is a common occurrence at any kind of music festival across the globe, not just raves or hardstyle events,” she said.

“People bring their own drugs in or seek them out during the event, it’s not something you can prevent.”

Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill told the Herald Sun on Sunday that seven partygoers had been placed into induced comas but by Monday, Ambulance Victoria confirmed nine people had been treated for drug-related incidents, with eight intubated and one taken to hospital for treatment.

“There were a lot of ­patients overdosing on MDMA, quite a number of them were critically unwell,” Mr Hill said.

“Patients had to be placed into an induced coma by our ­mobile intensive care ambulance paramedics and a breathing tube placed into their throat, so they were fully sedated.”

He said the government did not have any current plans for pill testing.

“(Pill testing is) not all there is to this space, we do a bunch of other work in relation to harm minimisation,” he said.

Revellers at the music festival.

Ambulance Victoria regional and clinical operations director Vanessa Gorman said the revellers suffered from effects of serotonin syndrome.

“This is a reaction you can get from illegal drugs and basically it puts your body into defensive overdrive,” she said.

“They all had very high temperatures over 40C and they all presented with acute cardiac symptoms which is why they all needed that life saving support through the intubation and transport through to hospital.”

Mr Hill said more paramedics were called later to help with the overdoses.

“Ambulance Victoria sent out a text message at 10.30pm, seeking additional MICA crews to assist,” he said.

“They had to bring paramedics in from other parts of the city to assist with it – it shows how dire the situation was.”

But Ms Gorman said Ambulance Victoria had the right resources in place to provide the best care.

“This is an event that we have been to and supported before,” she said.

“What we do here at Ambulance Victoria is if there are requests from larger festivals and events that are under our emergency management unit, we provide resourcing and on this occasion we had MICA paramedics already part of the resourcing team that were on-site.

“As long as these events are well-resourced, in regards to providing first aid and medical support, the rest should then sit with the festival organisers.”

Ms Gorman said the revellers could have overdosed from a combination of the ecstasy, dehydration and extreme heat.

It comes as video footage from the rave shared on social media showed 10,000 partygoers packed into the venue, dancing shirtless as temperatures soared to 32C.

“Overall, production was crazy, it was sick,” one reveller said.

“The only issue I had and I think everyone did was the heat … I was dripping the whole time, it was f--ked.”

Another video showed a reveller holding up his phone with the word “Caps?” written across the screen.

“Caps” is a term used to describe a range of illegal drugs sold as capsules.

Mr Hill said partygoers needed more education about the dangers of illicit drugs.

“This highlights the dangers of some of the drugs that are passed around at rave parties and why there needs to be mechanisms to try and protect against them – it raises the issue of pill testing and pill checking,” he said.

“The last thing you want is for these pills to be handed out next weekend at another rave and people not know the effect it could have.

“So often these drugs are laced with other chemicals and they can have a huge amount of dangerous side effects. Whatever people think they are getting, it can often be a lot different from what they think they have bought.”

It’s believed volunteers from DanceWize, an alcohol and drugs harm reduction program, were at the event.

“Hardmission is committed to ensuring a safe and enjoyable experience for all our attendees. As part of our dedication to harm minimisation, we are proud to ­announce the presence of DanceWize at the event,” the organisers posted on social media a day before the rave.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the investigation into the incidents remained ongoing.

United Music Events, organisers of Hardmission Festival, and DanceWize were contacted for comment.