all the information we have today we have no excuse not to take initiatives that can help save lives ,’ EMCDDA director Alexis Goosdeel told the agency ’ s Safe festivals and healthy nightlife – sharing experience among practitioners webinar .

Europe was home to a wealth of useful experience and initiatives , he said , although ‘ they ’ re not always well known , and they ’ re not always well supported and well financed .’ The continent ’ s ever-changing drug market and ever-growing number of new psychoactive substances meant we ‘ cannot afford not to be ready ’, he stated . ‘ It ’ s not about promoting specific services , or one specific model . It ’ s really to integrate and support the development of the harm reduction system , which is a combination of interventions .’

‘ Most of our volunteers are party attenders who come together to help each other ,’ said

Gabriel Borkowski of the DÁT2 Psy Help grassroots organisation in Hungary . ‘ We ’ re not backed by any government organisation or anything like that . In the winter we go to indoor parties and clubs and in the summer we attend outdoor festivals .’ The three pillars of support offered by his organisation were physical wellbeing , mental wellbeing and providing information , he said . ‘ We provide water , vitamins and minerals , fruit , snacks , condoms and a safe space for people to rest or get some shade . We also have psychologists to sit with people and help them through difficult experiences .’

CHALLENGING ENVIRONMENTS Many festivals could be challenging events that could really take their toll , both physically and mentally , said Mar Cunha of Kosmicare , which runs a permanent drug checking facility in Lisbon as well as providing services at festivals throughout Portugal . ‘ These are large events ,

sometimes up to ten days long , and there ’ s a lot of heat . In Portugal it can be 42 degrees – it ’ s really , really intense .’

‘ The space you ’ re operating in sets the boundaries ,’ said Mikk Oja of the Night Fairies nightlife harm reduction programme in Estonia , which provides support at festivals , clubs and underground events through a network of volunteers . ‘ If you ’ re in a nightclub you don ’ t have room for a psych care area , for example .’ His organisation operated from tents in festivals but also had outreach teams to go looking for festival-goers who needed help .

When it came to best practice , it was important for any organisation to work on their messaging , he said . ‘ We also put a lot of effort into our training programme because we ’ re volunteer-based ’, which included role-playing difficult situations – ‘ a much more practical way of understanding problems than the theoretical side ’. Night Fairies was now

considered a trustworthy partner for other organisations , including law enforcement , he said . ‘ We ’ re trying to build a network – we ’ re a mediator between underground clubs , law enforcement and governmental institutes .’

POLITICAL PROBLEMS The political situation in Hungary , however , made for a challenging atmosphere for organisations like DÁT2 Psy Help , said Borkowski , meaning implementing something like drug checking was an impossibility . ‘ There ’ s been no nationwide drug strategy for years . Mostly it ’ s anti-drug propaganda rather than the “ support , don ’ t punish ” approach we ’ d like to see , and because of that there ’ s no real funding or support for organisations like ours .’ There was also a real lack of education , he pointed out . ‘ Young people going to clubs and parties for the first time don ’ t have any background – they don ’ t know what to do , what not to do . They learn on the fly ,

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