Dance festival in serious doubt after drug overdoses

A drug cloud now hangs over the future of the Rainbow Serpent dance festival.

Police, paramedics and security services help load a man into a waiting ambulance at the Rainbow Serpent Festival.

A cloud hangs over the future of the Rainbow Serpent dance festival after seven people were taken to hospital with suspected drug overdoses, including a young man now fighting for his life.

Pyrenees Shire Mayor Robert Vance said the event would be subject to a review involving Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria, the event organisers, the local council, security and fire services.

The four-day “bush doof”, at Lexton near Ballarat in western Victoria, had a horror run this year that saw 12 attendees leave the event in ambulances and one in an emergency helicopter.

Six festivalgoers were taken to Ballarat Base Hospital in serious conditions to be treated for suspected drug overdoses.

Victoria Police said a 24-year-old Ivanhoe man was flown to Geelong University Public Hospital after a suspected overdose. He was in a critical condition.

Before the festival started, three people were injured, one seriously, when a truck rolled into a campsite on Thursday afternoon.

The costs of having ambulance crews and paramedics at the event is partly met by taxpayers, through Ambulance Victoria.

Ambulance Victoria said festival organisers partially paid for the resources, which costs $119.90 per paramedic hour, while the rest of the bill was paid by the emergency service.

“In the lead-up to events such as the Rainbow Serpent Festival, we do an assessment in collaboration with the event organisers of the Ambulance Victoria resources that will be required for the duration of the event,” he said.

Mr Vance was concerned but not surprised by the string of overdoses. “You put 18,000 ­people in a small area at a festival and it’s going to happen,” he said.

“It’s very concerning. I can’t understand why young people take pills.”

Mr Vance said festivalgoers spent between $3 million and $4m in the course of the four-day event as well as employing locals. He said it would be a loss to the area if it were not held again.

“It’d be a sad thing for the wider community, the festival’s been going for 22 years,” he said.

The fate of the festival rests with the local council.

The Rainbow Serpent Festival was marred by controversy last year with two sexual assaults reported, five arrests for drug possession and 44 people testing positive to drug driving.