Yours and Owls was the first NSW music festival to host a drug checking service, which will now be extended. Photo: Ian Laidlaw.
Drug testing will continue at up to 15 NSW music festivals following a successful trial which started at Wollongong’s Yours and Owls Festival in 2025.
The NSW Government has committed $4.3 million to the drug checking service which allows festival goers to have drugs they plan to consume tested by qualified health staff for purity, potency and adulterants.
An evaluation of the trial conducted at 12 music festivals found there were fewer drug-related hospital presentations, ambulance transfers and ICU admissions when drug checking was present, compared to the previous two years’ data.
Yours and Owls did not report any drug-related hospital presentations during the trial period.
During the trial, 1846 people accessed the drug testing service and 1475 samples were analysed.
A range of unexpected psychoactive substances were detected, including ketamine analogues, synthetic cathinones, heroin and 1,4-butanediol (an industrial solvent). Non-psychoactive substances were also detected including sugar, creatine and paracetamol.
Health Minister and Keira MP Ryan Park said drug checking services were not a silver bullet.
“Let me be clear, no level of illicit drug use is safe,” he said.
“There will always be risks involved when consuming these substances, and this initiative does not endorse drug use.
“Drug checking at music festivals can reduce harms associated with drug use, and it ultimately saves lives.”
The independent evaluation led by the University of Sydney found the drug checking service had a strong uptake among festival attendees.
A majority of people who used the service reported they had not previously engaged with health or harm reduction services, providing an opportunity to engage with them before they used drugs to communicate the risks and reinforce messaging that there is no safe level of illicit drug use.
The evaluation report said the estimated cost of delivering the trial was $786,340, equivalent to an average cost of $65,529 for each of the 12 festivals.
It said multi-day festivals held outside the Sydney metropolitan region such as Yours and Owls 2025 had higher costs, largely reflecting the longer operating periods, travel and accommodation requirements and additional logistical complexity associated with regional locations.
“Overall, the increased efficiencies and reduced costs (both festival-specific and total cost) demonstrated over the time of the trial suggest that these costs would likely stabilise if the drug checking service were delivered regularly across the music festival season. Further, average costs across the whole trial are likely to overestimate ongoing costs,” the report said.
When the 2025 trial was announced for Yours and Owls, organiser Ben Tillman said he was delighted the government chose to run the trial at the event.
“Pill testing is something we have been fighting for [for] some time now,” he said at the time.
“While Yours and Owls maintains a zero-tolerance policy to illegal drugs, we are realists and see the abstinence-only approach as unhelpful.
“Pill testing is not a panacea; however, it is a proven harm minimisation strategy and has been successfully implemented in many countries overseas for the past 20 or so years.
“Ultimately, we ask individuals to take responsibility for themselves and their decision-making to ensure they have a great time safely.”
NSW Health will now consult with the music festival industry and harm reduction organisations to identify up to 15 music festivals per year to participate in the program.
Participating festivals will again be identified based on characteristics associated with a higher probability of drug harm, including type and size of the festival, and location.
Drug checking will be delivered by NSW Health, in partnership with NUAA (formerly the NSW and Users and AIDS Association) and the music festival industry.
The results of this analysis are explained to service users by qualified and experienced peer workers from NUAA, who provide important harm reduction advice, allowing the service user to make an informed decision about their health.
Amnesty bins will be available within the Drug Checking space for service users to safely dispose of their drugs if they choose to do so.
Tickets are now on sale for the Yours & Owls festival on 3 and 4 October at the Wollongong Foreshore, South Beach and Wollongong City. Yours & Owls is a 16-plus event.
Original Article published by Jen White on Region Illawarra.
