Snowtunes Festival Hits Back At Claims Of Widespread Underage Drinking

Just like the old adage “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink” goes, you can lead underage youths to a music festival, but you can’t make them not get stuck into Dad’s Christmas sherry before they leave.

The Snowtunes Festival in Jindabyne, run over the weekend with acts like Hermitude, Tkay Miadza, and Allday, came under fire from the Office of Liquor, Gaming, & Racing after widespread reports that the supposedly “all ages, family friendly” event devolved into mild chaos. Numerous instances of underage drinking were reported – including a 13 year-old girl being found “dazed and confused” in the women’s toilets – and a DJ allegedly shouted “Fuck the police sniffer dogs! People just want to get high and have fun!
Although Allday angrily labelled that last claim as an utter lie.

A press release from the OLGR was scathing of the festival, and its organisers.

“OLGR inspectors and Police at the festival found controls and security supervision to be seriously lacking and insufficient for the 3,600 patrons in attendance. This, coupled with the risky nature of the event, created a potentially unsafe environment particularly for minors.”


“The operators of Snowtunes failed to adequately assess the risks of conducting such a large event and failed to ensure adequate planning and deployment of resources to maintain proper oversight of patrons.”

“Instead of properly monitoring the crowd for intoxication and safety issues security staff were deployed to the event perimeter to stop people jumping the fence without paying for tickets. By doing this they dropped the ball on what was going on in the general crowd and mosh pit areas and serious intoxication issues arose as a result.”

Sounds like a pretty run-of-the-mill music festival, TBH.

Nevertheless, after the OLGR vowed “regulatory action” against the organisers, it seemed in their best interests to respond, which they have done this afternoon. And angrily so.

“Snowtunes organisers are shocked that without consultation post event that OLGR have released a statement which contains inaccuracies. Representatives from St Johns, Red Cross Save a Mate, local Police, and Security who were present on the night all provided positive feedback at the cessation of the event.”


“Organisers of Snowtunes reiterate that safety and responsible service of alcohol are always our highest priority during any event. The Snowtunes event met all security requirements with a high concentration of qualified personnel.
Interaction with on-site policing was extremely positive and resulted in the police complimenting the organisers at the conclusion of the event. The Snowtunes organisers are seeking active engagement with OLGR regarding the content of their media release, and will be engaging with the Ombudsman to evaluate the decision taken by OLGR to release this statement without appropriate consultation.”

“These issues were not raised with Snowtunes organisers post the event, and the organisers are taking steps to resolve the situation with OLGR by providing all evidence and supporting statements from qualified personnel that stand by Snowtunes in refuting the claims made in this press release. The organisers require OLGR to provide clarity and evidence to support their claims.”

There’s a pretty dang good reason why most music festivals are advertised as 18+ events these days. Support the butt that supports you.

Photo via Facebook.

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