AAA White Paper The political economy of informal events, 2030 | Page 103

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Alcohol is a lucrative business which also generates revenue
for Her Majesty’s Treasury. Illegal drugs are lucrative, not least
because no tax is paid on them. But with both alcohol and drugs,
the right future for informal events lies not in media-friendly acts
of direct repression, but in that more difficult thing, applying the
law both firmly and fairly.
It is also why the right future around drugs at events lies in
organisations such as The Loop.
The Loop is a not-for-profit community interest company which
tests the safety of drugs available at events and conveys its findings
to emergency services, event staff on site, and the wider public –
through on-site signage and social media. At events, The Loop also
gives event-goers advice on reducing the harms associated with
drugs and alcohol, and works with paramedics and security staff
to help those in distress after taking drugs. Last, The Loop offers
training courses, both general and bespoke, for events staff.
The Loop, and organisations such as Festival Safe, are not the
only way to go, but they are inspiring examples of what can and must
be done. For as festival attendees rise in the years toward 2030, the
risks to public safety from drug abuse will rise too. Already, 2018
saw two high-profile deaths at – and more than a dozen people
taken to hospital from – the Mutiny Festival, Portsmouth, causing
the event to be cancelled.
Again, however, a sense of proportion here is vital. To repeat:
about 2850 music festivals will be held in 2019. If we take, once
again, the average attendance per festival as being about 10,000
people or more, then we can suppose that, sooner or later, 30
million visits will be made to UK music festivals each year.
Now suppose that, in the course of a year, a dreadful six deaths
occur at these kind of informal events.
Quite obviously, that would be a tragic six deaths too many. But
such a horrendous toll would still amount to a fatality rate of one
per five million visits. It would be ridiculous to generalise, from
such a statistic, that ‘music festivals lead to lethal drug overdoses’.
In considering how risky music festivals are in terms of dangerous
drug abuse, we need also to factor in the price, strength and variety
of drugs available. As this century started, the average amount of
MDMA, the active ingredient in the drug Ecstasy, was 50-80mg per
pill. Today, for a slightly lower price, Ecstasy pills in Europe contain
an average of about 125mg, with super-strength pills holding more
than 270mg. Meanwhile, the variety of synthetic drugs mimicking
traditional substances has also soared. As early as 2015, the number
of substances tracked by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs
and Drug Addiction passed 450.
Music festivals cannot be held responsible for the fact that
drugs have grown cheaper, stronger and more varied over time.
The truth is that, because of the growing professionalisation of
informal events, the incidence of dangerous, life-threatening
drug abuse remains and is likely to remain very small.