Top Festivals Protest Usage Of Legal Drugs

Festivals in the United Kingdom are drawing a line in the sand when it comes to legal highs, with 24 party events such as Bestival, T In The Park, Secret Garden Party, Lovebox and Sonisphere joining with the Association of Independent Festivals to participate in a blackout of their websites and social media platforms tomorrow.

The blackout is designed to spread awareness about the growing issue of legal-high use at festivals.

Between them, the festivals reach millions with their online presence, but those people will find the events' homepages sporting nothing but a blacked-out splash screen with an image of a lightbulb linking to further information about concerns surrounding legal drugs.

Legal highs, as most of you are aware by now, are new, untested and unregulated substances sold legally through whatever outlets are happy enough to sell them.

Australia cracked down on the sale of such products last year, specifically with regard to synthetic cannabis.

The substances are supposed to mimic the effects of illegal drugs, and in the process remove exactly zero percent of the risk of drug use, unless you count “shanked by dealer” as a legitimate probability, in which case that part is off the table.

But, as with illicit drugs, the comedown isn't even in the same galaxy as feeling “pleasant”, and it only gets worse from there.

“Legal highs are a serious concern for any festival organiser and the issue is only going to get bigger. The substances have managed to fly under-the-radar purely by evolving faster than the monitoring bodies can regulate,” said AIF co-founder and vice-chair Ben Turner.  

 “Banning it at our festivals is only part of the battle, however. We need to make fans aware of the dangers of legal highs and help them make safer choices when having fun on-site.”

The timing of such an awareness drive couldn't be more apt, as deaths from legal-high use in the UK jumped from 29 to 52 – an 80 percent rise – from 2011-12. The situation is further muddied by a lack of regulation, which has resulted in more than 280 legal highs being freely available for consumption across the EU.

The Association of Independent Festivals is a non-profit entity set up in 2008 to represent independent music festivals in the UK and Ireland, and operates as an autonomous division of the Association of Independent Music.

The full list of festivals participating is 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.

For more information, visit the AIF website.