NSW has unveiled the first music festival to host pill testing in the state as it joins the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland, and Victoria to embrace the harm minimising service.
The government confirmed Yours and Owls Festival — slated for 1-2 March in Wollongong — will be the first festival to participate in the 12-month trial previously announced in December.
The free and anonymous service aims to connect festivalgoers with qualified health staff who can test a sample of the substances they intend to consume for potency, purity, and adulterants. It is staffed by health workers, peer workers, and analysts, who will be able to answer any drug safety-related questions and provide referrals to health and welfare services available at the event or in the community.
The service will run alongside other harm reduction and medical teams at the festival, with NSW Police also on-site.
In a statement on Wednesday, Minister for Health Ryan Park was quick to remind the public that while pill testing is a step toward safety, illegal drug use remains, well, illegal.
“Pill testing does not provide a guarantee of safety,” he said.
But this trial has been designed “to provide people with the necessary information to make more informed decisions about drug use, with the goal of reducing drug-related harm and saving lives”.
Ben Tillman, Yours and Owls co-founder, said the team was “enthusiastically” on board with the service, acknowledging they have been fighting for this “for some time now”.
“While Yours and Owls maintains a zero-tolerance policy to illegal drugs, we are realists and see the abstinence-only approach as unhelpful,” he said.
“Pill testing is not a panacea. However, it is a proven harm minimisation strategy that has been successfully implemented in many countries overseas for the past twenty or so years.
“Ultimately, we ask individuals to take responsibility for themselves and their decision-making to ensure they have a great time safely.”
He also encouraged festivalgoers who find themselves or their mates in trouble to seek immediate medical assistance.
“There will be no judgment, you won’t get into trouble, patrons need to remember their safety and that of their mates is the most important thing,” Tillman said.
Back in 2018, Groovin The Moo in Canberra was among the first music festivals to host the service in Australia. Since then, it’s expanded to a number of other events like Spilt Milk in 2023 and Rabbits Eat Lettuce and Beyond the Valley in 2024.
Most recently, the Victorian government confirmed it will be rolling out pill testing to more festivals in coming months, including Pitch Music and Arts Festival (7-11 March), Ultra Music Festival (12 April) and The Warehouse Project (25 April).
The conversation around pill testing came to the forefront last festival season after a series of concerning incidents. Nine people fell critically ill at Hardmission after ingesting MDMA with unexpectedly high potency and 23-year-old Antony Maugeri tragically lost his life following a suspected overdose at Pitch Music and Arts.
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