‘Enough is enough’: Mike Baird calls for crackdown on music festivals over drugs

[Cupe]

 

 

MUSIC festivals will have to clean up or shut up after a series of drug arrests and overdoses marred the notorious Field Day Festival, Premier Mike Baird warned yesterday.

 

Declaring “enough is enough”, Mr Baird said all festival organisers would be held accountable for “distressing and avoidable” drug-related overdoses after another partygoer came close to dying at the Sydney event.

 

The 23-year-old woman was rushed to hospital in a critical condition on Friday night after collapsing from a suspected MDMA overdose.

 

Paramedics treat a young woman in the van following a suspected overdose at the Field Day music festival, before rushing her to hospital. Picture: Gordon McComiskie

 

More than 180 people were charged with drug ­offences.

 

The woman, one of several people who suffered overdoses during the event in The Domain, was released from St Vincent’s Hospital yesterday afternoon following a remarkable recovery.

 

It follows three drug-related deaths at Sydney music festivals in the past year, including 25-year-old pharmacist Sylvia Choi, who died of an overdose at Stereosonic Music Festival at Olympic Park in November.

 

Mr Baird said he would call on “relevant ministers” to review the system for issuing permits to organisers of music festivals and demand more extensive screening at entry points.

 

“Individuals need to take responsibility for their actions, but so do the organisers of these festivals,” he said.

 

Sylvia Choi died of a drug overdose at the Stereosonic Music Festival last year. Picture: NSW Police

 

“In the light of this latest distressing and avoidable incident, I will be asking the relevant ministers to review the current system of regulating events held on public land, including the system for granting permits for public events such as music festivals.”

 

He said festival organisers who did not comply with new requirements would be shut down.

 

“If new rules and procedures place additional burdens and costs on organisers, so be it — and we will also examine denying permits to organisers who have not done the right thing in the past,” he said.

“Enough is enough. This simply has to stop.”

 

Police Minister Troy Grant said the government made “no apologies for its strong stance against the use of illegal drugs”.

 

A Field Day spokeswoman said a number of overdose victims were rushed to the emergency department while more than 200 people were treated by paramedics. Police charged 184 revellers with drug offences, 30 less than last year. Eight of those were charged with drug supply, including two people allegedly found with a large amount of MDMA.

 

A 26-year-old woman was allegedly found in possession of 100 ecstasy tablets and a 19-year-old man allegedly had 81 ecstasy tablets. Both were granted bail and will appear at Downing Centre Local Court on January 28.

 

Teenager Georgina Bartter died last year after a reaction to a drug taken at Harbourlife in the Royal Botanical Gardens. In September, Nigel Pauljevic, 26, from Albury, died from an overdose at Defqon dance festival in Penrith.

 

Source