Facts & Figures. Festival Deaths on the Rise in the EDM World. On July 18, a student was found dead of undetermined causes at Pemberton Music Festival in British Columbia.
In June, two Glastonbury festivalgoers died, a 67-year-old of natural causes and another from a suspected reaction to the anesthetic ketamine. One more succumbed at Las Vegas’ Electric Daisy Carnival from drug-related causes, and reportedly six at Future Music Festival Asia. Perhaps the oddest of all, a man self-immolated at Utah’s Burning Man equivalent, Element 11. So far, a total of 15 people have died at music festivals around the world. What gives? Pemberton Music Festival: Police Investigating Death of Young Man There is no question that the number of deaths attributable to controlled substances is on the rise, but dance music is hardly the only hub for excessive partying.
Many of today’s festival deaths came after revelers showed symptoms (dehydration, overheating) associated with taking MDMA, or Molly, the purest form of ecstasy commonly found at EDM events. Police Seizures of Drugs at UK Music Festivals. Quantities of drugs seized at music festivals across the UK have declined significantly over the last three years, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act which provide a unique insight into changing patterns of drug use at British music festivals.
Source: Guardian (2) The data, which covers festivals taking place over four years – from 2008 to 2011 – shows drug confiscations peaking in 2009 but falling away rapidly in the years since. Between 2009 and 2011 seizures of cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy all fell by over 65% and the total for all substances dropped by a similar margin – from £288,420 to £101682.
On the Isle of Wight it’s been largely about cocaine and ecstasy, at Glastonbury the hauls of ketamine have been creeping up, while the drug of choice for heavy metal fans would seem to be Jack Daniels and other booze. Individual events also meanwhile display particular characteristics when it comes to the type of drugs seized. Peppermint says; Good work Police! Revealed: types and quantities of drugs seized by police at UK music festivals. On the Isle of Wight it's been largely about cocaine and ecstasy, at Glastonbury the hauls of ketamine have been creeping up, while the drug of choice for heavy metal fans would seem to be Jack Daniels and other booze.
As a tens of thousands of young (and not so young) music fans await another festival season, new figures based on police activities at 10 major festivals over the past four years provide an insight into the range and scale of drugs seized. They show that seizures of popular drugs such as cannabis and ecastasy have been in decline, possibly due factors such as changing behaviour, demographics and policing priorities. Cocaine seizures have been in sharp decline since the onset of the economic hard times, and there is some evidence to back up suggestions that recreational drug users have been turning to relatively cheaper drugs like ketamine, the horse tranquilliser dubbed the 'new ecstasy'.
New Study Tries to Use Instagram to Track Drug Use at Music Festivals. In a study that could be subtitled "Which Festival to Go to If You Like to Get High," the Coalition Against Drug Abuse found that cocaine rules Coachella, DMT is rampant at Burning Man, Electric Daisy Carnival is a veritable supermarket of MDMA, and (surprise!)
People smoke pot at Marley Fest. Or at least they Instagram about smoking it. Whether they're actually doing so, the study fails to answer. Taking the most methodologically lazy approach imaginable, the Coalition's study didn't arrive at its conclusions about drug use at music festivals — a potentially useful data set — by scanning emergency room records, surveying med tent staffers or EMT's, or even doing any on-the-ground research. Instead, the apparently armchair-conducted study simply counts Instagram posts that mention a a festival name and a drug term in the same post. This study — if you could even call it that — is almost totally devoid of meaningful information.
Music festivals aren’t always just for listening, though. Study Finds Which Drugs Are Most Popular at Each Festival. It's tricky to get stats on how many people do drugs -- it's illegal, after all.
Sometimes, people talk about doing drugs (or just about drugs) though, even on social media (which is, admittedly, inadvisable -- think of your future employers!). Perhaps no place is as notorious for drug use as music festivals. The Ultimate Summer Festival Guide: Who to See, What to Wear and Where to Stay DrugAbuse.com decided to figure out how all these different factors intersect with a study of drug and alcohol mentions, by festival, on Instagram.