Festivals just got safer for our party people, but there’s more to be done

Last summer, a couple of young people I know arrived at a North Island music festival full of the joys, and ready to party. Running a little late, they assumed they’d missed getting dibs on a good camping spot, when they spied one last empty space right near the path to the stages. Sick, they thought, lucky! They pitched their tent, secured their stuff, and off they went.

Late in the evening, tuckered out and happy, they returned to find they’d placed themselves directly under a massive floodlight, which rendered their wee tent completely transparent. They could neither sleep, nor change clothes, nor – erm – do anything without it being witnessed by any and all who cared to glance in their direction.

They were newbies to the festival scene and, well, no harm done (apart from the gales of laughter from their families when they later told the story). As far as festival pitfalls go, it wasn’t a biggie. For young people (those who can afford festival tickets) and for their wha¯nau, there are other, much more worrying, issues to consider; like safety from sexual and other violent acts, and excess alcohol and drug consumption. Any rational parent who does not bury their head in the sand will know what I mean.

This week the Government rushed interim legislation through Parliament to make festival drug-testing legal (that is, the testing of drugs that revellers intend to take, not of people who may have taken drugs) and therefore easier and more accessible for those who’d like to know they’re not going to be poisoned, or overcome by tainted, contaminated or overly-strong substances.

Drug testing harm-reduction groups, such as KnowYourStuffNZ, have been operating cloak-and-dagger-style at festivals for years and do wonderful work, but the lack of legal protections has meant their process is slow, and the queues are long, and they can’t get harm-reduction information to everyone because, well, not everyone will know they’re there. It is the first-timers, youngsters like the ones I was talking about above, who are most at risk, and information on how to approach drugs when you lack experience could be the difference between life and death.

As KnowYourStuffNZ managing director Wendy Allison explained this week, every test takes five to 10 minutes at present, because the current law does not allow the organisation’s testers to handle the drugs. This means young people must volunteer their sample and then be coached through the process of preparing that sample for testing. You can imagine how tricky this might be sometimes.

Allison has seen the effects of tough drug laws over decades; like many parents, she has a laser-focus on keeping youngsters safe, rather than expecting she can control what they will or won’t do when not under her direct gaze. Her mission is to make sure young people make decisions about drug-taking armed with the best possible information.

The KnowYourStuffNZ legend has been spreading; demand for its services has ‘‘increased exponentially’’, as more and more people learn the service is available.

More than half of those whose drugs are shown to be contaminated choose not to take the substance. KnowYourStuffNZ does not ever confiscate, understanding that demand for the service would drop off immediately if they did, but people often hand the rest of the stash over for immediate destruction anyway, once it’s been found to be not what they expected.

The group has been holding pop-up clinics in Wellington and Auckland outside festival times and has even had requests for testing through the mail.

Allison told media this week she was encouraged by, and supported the interim rules; unfortunately though, the move has come too late to make much of a difference this summer. KnowYourStuffNZ has access to only three spectrometers (the bits of specialised kit that analyse the contents of pills and the like) and cannot be everywhere at once. There is no time left before the big New Year parties to import new spectrometers either – shipping hold-ups due to Covid-19 mean orders to the manufacturers in Germany would be unlikely to arrive until February at the earliest.

Nevertheless, what they can do under the new legislation will be easier and quicker, allowing more people to access the service, hear the safety information, and make the best possible decisions.

This could of course all have been sorted out earlier, had NZ First not blocked Labour’s previous attempts. This time it has passed with the support of all parties other than the depleted ranks of National. Simon Bridges’ muddleheaded message of ‘‘two wrongs don’t make a right’’ this week has even put him at odds with the party’s youth wing, but thankfully, we can leave his impossible dream of ‘‘just don’t do it’’ aside, and get on with things.

There is one small detail that worries me, though.

Allison confirmed KnowYourStuffNZ will not be advertising its service widely on-site, without the express permission of each festival. This is despite the legislation removing the legal obstacles and grey areas, and apparently this is to do with the festivals’ views on potential ‘‘reputational damage’’.

I attempted to contact 14 of the major summer festivals to ask whether they will be giving that express permission.

I got answers from nine before my deadline; an enthusiastic ‘‘YES!’’ from Splore (Auckland), Beach Hop (Whangamata) Earth Beat (Auckland). Peachy Keen (Wellington) was also a ‘‘yes’’ and organiser Amber Fowler was excited about adding ‘‘another layer to our festival-goers’ safety’’.

Electric Avenue’s (Christchurch) Callam Mitchell, who ruled out drug testing onsite in 2019, was a ‘‘yes’’ for this year thanks to the law change, but says he’s been told the service is booked out.

Bay Dreams (Mt Maunganui) One Love (Tauranga) and Rhythm and Vines (Gisborne) all supported the law change and are looking at logistics of implementation. Soundsplash (Raglan) had not yet made a decision.

There was no response from other festivals, including the big names like Womad, Rhythm & Alps, and Homegrown. Likewise, Northern Base. I’m hoping all of them will be a similarly enthusiastic ‘‘yes’’.

I get that no organising committee wants to appear pro-drugs – although the new legislation makes the handling of drugs for testing legal, the drugs themselves remain illegal – but any event organiser making money from young people’s partying must, in my view, take every opportunity to make their event safer for their customers.

Those that don’t expressly do so are likely to feel the wrath of New Zealand’s parents, who like me, want to see their kids come home exhausted, grubby, but safe from this year’s round of summer mega-parties.

Any event organiser is making money from young people’s partying must, in my view, take every opportunity to make their event safer for their customers.