Music Festivals In NSW Will Now Need A Specific Liquor Licence To Operate

Music festival organisers in New South Wales will have to spring for a new licence to run their events from March 1, as the result of recommendations from a panel convened last year to combat drug-related deaths at festivals.

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The Guardian reports the new guidelines will likely require organisers to seek the tick of approval from NSW Health, NSW Police, NSW Ambulance and Liquor and Gaming NSW before they can run their event.

The new system will permit the cancellation of any pre-approved licence at a proposed festival site, and will enable authorities to punish organisers who breach safety conditions with the same penalties applied to those who fall foul of regular liquor licences.

In a statement, NSW Racing Minister Paul Toole said the scheme will account for festivals deemed to have a high risk factor in terms of attendee health and safety. Events deemed to be historically unsafe “will face greater oversight from authorities,” Toole said.

Under current state government policy, that could be read to mean ‘more sniffer dogs’. Despite recent calls from advocacy groups and medical bodies including the Royal Australasian College of Physicians to enact pill testing at music festivals, the licence is not expected to include provisions for the harm reduction measure.

While a set of interim guidelines calls for peer-based drug advice services and the establishment of ‘chill out’ spaces for punters, there is no mention of pill testing.

The kinks in the licence are still being ironed out before that March 1 debut, but don’t expect there to be too much leniency on the whole pill testing issue.

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