An Adelaide city councillor wants to see dance music festivals held in extreme heat banned to prevent more deaths following the tragic overdose of 19-year-old Stefan Woodward at Stereosonic last weekend.
As Adelaide Now reports, Adelaide City Councillor Anne Moran argued there should be a review into music festivals using the city’s Parklands to find way to potentially prevent another death from occurring.
Stereosonic Adelaide took place at Bonython Park on Saturday, when temperatures in the South Australian capital hit more than 40C. Cr Moran wants festivals to be cancelled or rescheduled on days above 35C.
Cr Moran said instead of doubling down on drugs, policy needs to prevent drug users from overheating and dying or suffering organ damage. “This isn’t about stopping people taking drugs it’s about stopping people from dying,” she said.
“We can’t be so naive to think that having a zero-tolerance policy (towards drugs) will work so there needs to be a review into what can be done to reduce the risk of another death,” she continued.
“I think we seriously need to consider banning these festivals from going ahead on days above 35C or 36C.” The council had previously approved the festival to use Bonython Park for this year’s Stereosonic event.
However, Cr Moran said council should think about enacting more conditions to improve safety for drug-using festivalgoers before approving more events. “One of the big risks when people take these drugs is overheating which can result in organ damage and death,” she said.
“We need to ask whether we, as a council, should be imposing more conditions like mandatory free water and more proactive medical treatment such as (first aid officers or medical professionals) walking through the crowd and trying to spot people in trouble.”
“Young people are going to continue taking these drugs and this whole war-on-drugs attitude has proven to be an absolute failure.” City program manager Sean McNamara said any event staged in the Parklands must meet the terms and conditions agreed upon in its approval.
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“This includes, among other requirements, a rigorous risk management process which considers patrons’ safety,” he said, adding that Stereosonic organisers responded appropriately to the extreme heat on the day.
“The Stereosonic event organisers responded to the forecast extreme heat through their risk management process by increasing the free water stations, misting stations and first aid facilities on site.”
After the death of Mr Woodward, Health Minister Jack Snelling said “the Government is willing to consider anything that might prevent such tragedies” but insisted taking illegal drugs “will always be inherently dangerous”.
While Cr Moran’s plan obviously doesn’t take into account the position of festival organisers, who stand to lose millions by cancelling or postponing an event as well as potential insurance issues, it’s refreshing to see local government eschew a hard-line anti-drug stance in response to such a tragedy.
