Music festivals, electronic dance music events, live concerts and raves are often common environments for young people to experiment with alcohol and other drugs. 

While most likely don’t use drugs frequently, they may opt to take drugs recreationally at these events.

Pill testing at festivals is a harm reduction strategy which allows people who are already in possession of drugs to test the chemical substance and find out what is actually present in what they were planning to consume. 

• It has been heavily researched and is a well-known strategy to reduce the risk of harm from drug use in over 20 countries worldwide.
• It communicates the risk around drug use and helps create informed decisions when taking drugs.
• From a health perspective, it is naive to think that young people will not be experimenting with drugs at these events so the principle of harm reduction becomes more important.
• While not all young people will refrain from taking drugs, harm reduction ensures that any individual harm associated with taking drugs at music festivals is minimised whenever and wherever possible. 

DanceWize NSW is an initiative under the NSW Users and AIDS Association which aims to increase the safety of festival goers. See the DanceWize website for more information on their services or to find out which festivals they will attend.

See the Alcohol and Drug Foundation website for more information about your child staying safe at music festivals.