Music

What We Know About The Two Suspected Overdoses From Yesterday’s Defqon.1 Music Festival

Pill testing was not allowed at the festival.

by Max Koslowski  16 September 2018
Defqon.1 Pill Testing

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Two festivalgoers are dead and two others are in a critical condition following last night’s Defqon.1 music festival in Penrith, Sydney.

The two deaths came from suspected overdoses. A 23-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman were moved to Nepean hospital from the music festival, where they both soon died.

Two others, one from Artarmon and the other from Jamisontown, both remain in a critical condition.

Pill testing was not available at Defqon.1, nor has it been available at any Australian music festival since it was trialled at Canbera’s Groovin’ the Moo in April.

In response to the deaths, NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has declared that she never wants Defqon. to appear in the state again.

“I never want to see this event held in Sydney or New South Wales ever again — we will do everything we can to shut this down,” she said. “Anyone who advocates pill-testing is giving the green light to drugs. There is no such thing as a safe drug and unfortunately when young people think there is, it has tragic consequences.”

NSW Greens politician David Shoebridge hit out at the state government for failing to facilitate pill testing at last night’s music festival.

Others voiced frustration that pill testing wasn’t available.

Police say that a further 13 festivalgoers were treated at Nepean Hospital for drug-related issues, and over 700 sought medical assistance at Defqon.1.

10 people were charged with drug supply offences, including two teenage girls who allegedly attempted to carry 120 capsules into the Penrith venue. An additional 59 people were charged with drug possession.

Police have launched Strike Force Highworth to investigate the two deaths.

Politicians across the spectrum have called for pill testing since Canberra’s April trial.

“How many funerals do we have to go to of people that have taken these substances and found out they’re not what they’re sold?” asked Liberal backbencher Warren Entsch during an interview with ABC Radio in May.

“If we are going to get serious about harm minimisation, then pill testing at a music festival must be an option,” Labor senator Lisa Singh told the national broadcaster that same day.

Neither Labor nor the Liberals have a national pill testing policy, and the Greens support a rollout of drug testing to music festival across the country.

Earlier this year Victoria premier Daniel Andrews, of the Labor party, said he would opposed pill testing after a mass overdose at the Festival Hall rave in January.

In comparison to the dozens of drug-related arrests at Defqon.1 — and the more than 100 arrests at Byron Bay’s Splendour in the Grass last month — there were only three arrests when pill testing was trialled at Groovin the Moo.

“We were able to identify two highly toxic substances, and a significant amount of drugs that differed from people’s expectations,” one of the people behind Groovin the Moo’s drug testing trial, Matt Noffs, told Junkee earlier this year. “They had everything, from paint, to lactose, to milk powder and toothpaste.”

The last time a festivalgoer died at Defqon.1 was in 2015, when 26-year-old Nigel Pauljevic was found unresponsive in a tent at the venue.

In a statement, Defqon.1 said that they were sad to hear of this year’s deaths.

“We are disappointed at the number of reported drug-related incidents, we have a zero-tolerance policy in relation to drug use at the festival,” the the statement read.

“Festival organisers are working closely and cooperating with the authorities regarding the fatalities and the number of medical presentations made during the evening.”

“We are not going to speculate on the cause of death.”