Search icon

Music

22nd May 2017

Music festivals to allow festival goers to test illegal drugs before they take them

Conor Heneghan

drugs

A pioneering scheme is set to be rolled out at Reading, Leeds and a number of other festivals this year.

Festival goers at some of the biggest music festivals in the United Kingdom will be allowed to test illegal drugs before taking them in an attempt to increase safety amongst festival goers over the summer months.

According to The Independent, it is hoped that the scheme will be introduced at the Reading and Leeds festivals amongst a number of other events after it was tested at the Secret Garden Party in Cambridgeshire last year.

As part of the scheme, people attending festivals would be permitted to take their drugs to a testing tent run by The Loop, a not-for-profit community interest company that aims to promote health and minimise harms in nightclubs, bars and festivals.

Festival goers will be told what is in the sample they hand over in the testing tent and that sample will then be destroyed.

It is hoped that the scheme will be introduced with the support of local police forces and that it will help prevent drug-related fatalities at festivals following the deaths of three teenagers at Leeds and T in the Park in 2016.

Speaking to Press Association, Melvin Benn, head of Festival Republic, a subsidiary of Live Nation, said that it is expected that the scheme would be rolled out to “between six and 10 festivals this year”.

“We talked about it during the summer of last year and the reality is that I took a decision that unless and until the NPCC (National Police Chiefs’ Council) supported the principle of it, it was difficult for us to move forward on it,” Benn said.

Commenting on the scheme, meanwhile, Fiona Measham, founder of The Loop said: “It’s really exciting that police are prioritising health and safety over criminal justice at festivals.”