After a successful 12-month trial and an independent evaluation, pill testing will become a $4.3 million, permanent fixture at music festivals in New South Wales.
The University of Sydney led the independent evaluation and found that checking drugs at music festivals was effective in reducing risks and harms associated with drug use at the events.
During the trial, which was free and anonymous, punters brought a small sample of substances they intended to consume at a festival to qualified health staff who tested the samples for purity and potency.
Approximately 1,500 drug samples were tested, while 1,800 individuals used the service. The pill testing service had a “strong uptake” among punters, according to a press release from NSW Health, and was associated with a reduction in urgent drug-related hospitalisations compared to previous years of music festivals.
The first pill testing service of the trial period took place at the 2025 Yours & Owls Festival, held in Wollongong last March.
NSW Health has reached the stage of consulting with the state’s festival industry and harm reduction organisations to identify up to 15 music festivals per year to participate in the ongoing pill testing program. The probability of drug harm at festivals will be a key identifying factor in which events take part in the program.
NSW Health, in partnership with NUAA (formerly the NSW and Users and AIDS Association), and the state’s music festival industry, will deliver pill testing, in which chemists from the NSW Health Pathology Forensic & Analytical Science Service will analyse samples on-site at festivals.
Jennie Ross-King, whose daughter, Alex, sadly passed away after taking illicit drugs at a music festival, has shared support for the new initiative.
“The enormity of reaching this point is not lost on me,” Ross-King said. “This journey began with the most devastating loss imaginable, the death of my beautiful daughter, Alex, and has continued through more than seven years of grief, advocacy and repeatedly telling her story in the hope that someone would listen.”
Ross-King added that young people take risks but they “do not deserve to die because of one decision.”
“This will go a long way towards giving young people the information they need to make safer choices and, ultimately, ensuring they come home safely to the people who love them,” she continued.
“I am also deeply thankful to everyone who has listened, stood with us and continued to support this effort with such persistence and commitment, and to the NSW Government for listening to the evidence and lived experience, and having the courage to turn that into meaningful action."
NSW Minister for Health Ryan Park explained, “Let me be clear, no level of illicit drug use is safe, and drug checking services are not a silver bullet.”
Noting that there will always be risks when consuming illicit drugs, Park added that pill testing at festivals “can reduce harms associated with drug use, and it ultimately saves lives.”
Park continued, “For years, Coalition members refused to consider drug testing at festivals, and ignored the advice from clinicians, advocates and our leading experts in health.
“We’re delivering on our commitment to listen to those with lived experience, and this major investment reflects that.”
Minister for Youth Rose Jackson added, “The best way to keep young people safe is to listen to them, the expert evidence and respond with practical measures that reduce harm.
“Pill testing is a critical pathway for young people to connect with trained health workers; receive trusted advice and better understand the risks they may be taking.
“We want young people to enjoy live music and festivals safely, and this program is helping to do just that. They responded really positively to the trial and will be pleased to see this become a permanent feature of musical festivals in NSW.”
HSU NSW Secretary Gerard Hayes AM said, “Drug checking keeps people alive. As health workers we see the trauma suffered by parents, partners and family members when someone is lost or seriously hurt by a batch of toxic drugs.
“We can’t keep exposing people to the chemical lottery of street drugs when there is a safer and smarter way to give people the tools and knowledge to look after their health.”
