Glastonbury Joins UK Festival Blackout Against Legal Highs

A big win for the 24 events taking part in the Association Of Independent Festivals' digital blackout against legal-high use today: the world's largest Greenfields music and performing arts event, Glastonbury Festival, has joined their ranks.

Having "Glasto" become the 25th festival to publicly decry the use of legal highs at their events is a coup for the protest, which had already snagged the support of parties such as T in the Park, Bestival, Secret Garden Party, Lovebox, Global Gathering, Parklife and Sonisphere.

The addition of the high-profile event will ensure AIF's message that "legal does not equal safe" when it comes to unregulated substances receives an even broader signal boost than it was already enjoying - though, when it comes to issues such as this, there is no such thing as too much awareness.

“Legal highs are a huge but hidden problem because young people are acting in ignorance and no-one is measuring the harms," Maryon Stewart, the founder of anti-legal-high charity the Angelus Foundation, said. 

“As the lead organisation raising awareness of these substances, Angelus is delighted the festivals are taking the issue seriously and helping to keep their audiences safe. We are determined to keep expanding our prevention programme into new areas and bigger events until everyone get the message that the effects of these substances are unpredictable and high risk.”

The blackout will take effect from 9am UK time (6pm AEST), and will see the participating festivals "black out" their websites with informational splash logos and links to educational content regarding the risks of using legal highs.

Despite a spike in deaths from legal-high use (an 80 percent jump from 29 to 52 between 2011 and 2012), the issue remains a challenging one for authorities and organisational bodies; according to research from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, there are currently 280 unregulated substances freely available throughout the EU.

The full list of participating festivals is now as follows:

Glastonbury Festival, T in the Park, Bestival, Lovebox, Global Gathering, Secret Garden Party, Sonisphere, We Are FSTVL, 2000trees, ArcTanGent, Kendal Calling, Festibelly, Blissfields, Truck, Brownstock, Y Not Festival, Tramlines, Belladrum Tartan Heart, Leefest, Nozstock, Wakestock, Shambala, Glasgow Summer Sessions, Parklife and Eden Sessions.