Here’s a bunch of recent major festival drug offence statistics

[News]

Often news headlines will scream and shout amount of kids caught with drugs at festivals while local Police forces will talk about the hefty numbers of those detected with drugs at festivals around Australia year long round and the consistent message that they are disappointed with festival goers who continually flaunt laws to possess and consume illegal substances

We don’t disagree drugs can be dangerous and it’s risky to consume not knowing what is used to manufacture them but the headlines can be misleading by shifting the perception of the focus of music festivals and what they really mean – without the music it’s really just a bunch of munted people standing around right?

These stats are what is found and available online from some of Australia’s biggest festivals:

Defqon 2018
Capacity: 30,000
Recorded Offences: 69
Total: 0.20%

Defqon 2017
Capacity: 24,000
Recorded Offences: 45
Total: 0.19%

Defqon 2016:
Capacity: 25,000
Recorded Offences: 77
Total: 0.31%

Splendour in the Grass 2018
Capacity: 37,000
Recorded Offences: 148
Total: 0.40%

Splendour in the Grass 2017
Capacity: 32,500
Recorded Offences: 267 (of that 12 charged with drug supply)
Total:  0.82%

Splendour in the Grass 2016
Capacity: 33,500
Recorded Offences: 328 (of that 8 charged with drug supply)
Total: 0.97%

Listen Out 2018
Capacity: Sydney (34,000)
Recorded Offences: 159 (Sydney)
Total: 0.47%

Listen Out 2017
Capacity: ??? (Sydney/Melbourne)
Recorded Offences: 19 (Melb), 11 (Perth),
Total: >0.3

Listen Out 2016
Capacity: 25,000 (Sydney)
Recorded Offences: 116 (Sydney)
Total: 0.46%

Field Day 2018
Capacity: 26,000
Recorded Offences: 167
Total: .64%

Field Day 2017
Capacity: 28,000
Recorded Offences: 215
Total: 0.76%

Field Day 2016
Capacity: 28,000
Recorded Offences: 184
Total: 0.66%

With a significantly lower than one per cent hit rate across the board we think there’s a bit of unnecessary negative press towards music festivals. But we’re not here to tell you how to think, so check out the stats for yourself and tell us what you think, how do you think these stats would stack up to other events?

Check out our piece on double standards when it comes to racing and music festivals!

 

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