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NSW Health Guidelines for Music Festival Event Organisers: Music Festival Harm Reduction have been developed to support event organisers to provide safe environments for patrons at music festivals in NSW. They include a range of strategies including safety and harm reduction messaging.

Music festival organisers and promoters play a crucial role in communicating harm reduction messages to patrons. Harm reduction messages should be delivered before, during and after events. These messages can be distributed via all festival communication channels including social media platforms, websites, other digital platforms and promotion material. Organisers should consider pre- event messages via social media, text messages and on websites; at the event such as messages on video screens, posters at boundary fences, at queuing points, and in toilet cubicles; and after event messages on websites and social media.

Harm reduction messages should encourage patrons to seek help early if they experience adverse effects from drug and alcohol use and communicate the presence of chill out spaces and medical services. Signage about the location of chill out spaces and medical services should also be placed at the entrance, visible to patrons entering, leaving and during the event.

Here is a list of suggested messages to publish and distribute through event communication channels.

• Seek help if you feel unwell. You won't get into trouble for telling a medical professional what drugs you've taken. Medical services and chill out spaces are available onsite.
• If you're drinking alcohol, keep track of how many drinks you've had to avoid injury or making yourself sick.
• Using illicit drugs like ecstasy, LSD or methamphetamine come with risks. You don't know the purity, what other things have been added to them, strength or how it'll affect you. Don't mix alcohol with other drugs. 

Take care of your mates

• You're a mate, not a doctor so don't be afraid to seek help for someone who is unwell. 
• Get help for anyone you see who's unwell! Medical services and chill out spaces are available onsite.   
• It's a good idea to stay close to your mates. Agree on a place and time to meet, in case you get separated. Don't rely on your mobile phone – your battery could go flat or the network coverage could be overloaded.

Eat, hydrate and stay cool

• Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated, especially if you're drinking alcohol.
• Eat well before the festival and allow time for the food to digest. Have regular snacks throughout the festival to keep yourself going.
• Alcohol and other drugs can affect your body's ability to regulate temperature. Heat stroke and hypothermia can easily happen. Wear sun protection, take regular breaks in the shade and have warm clothes ready for when the sun goes down. 

Take care of your mental health

• Festivals can become overwhelming. If you're feeling overwhelmed or anxious, tell a trusted friend how you feel and move away from loud music. Find a calm place to relax. Find the chill out space who are there to help if you're not sure how you're feeling or need someone to talk too.
• Some drugs, such as psychedelics, can enhance negative feelings like anxiety or bad thoughts. Avoid alcohol or drugs if you are already feeling emotional, depressed or anxious. Don't make any important decisions about life or relationships during a festival!

Think about how you'll get home

• Before the festival, plan your way home and make sure you have enough money to pay for transport.
• Public transport is often the safest transport option. Remember that it's illegal to drive under the influence of alcohol or any illicit drug and it's not safe to drive until you are fully alert, sober and well rested. 
• Never get in a car with someone who has been drinking or taking illicit drugs.

Practice safe sex

• If you hook up with someone, be prepared and take condoms with you.  Sexual consent must be explicit. Consent might be different for everyone, but it should be enthusiastic and certain. People under the influence of drugs and alcohol may not be able to consent. If in doubt, put off having sex until they're sober. 
• Be aware of drink spiking. Buy and pour your own drinks. Don't accept drinks from strangers.

Visit the Play Safe website to find out everything you need to know about safe sex and consent.

Know what's right for you

• Decide what's right for you on issues like drugs, alcohol and sex. Knowing where you stand makes it easier to stay true to yourself.
• If you don't want to experiment with drugs, you're not alone! Most young people haven't used drugs or don't want to.
• Don't do anything you don't want to do – your mates will respect you more for standing up for yourself.

Harm reduction messaging and delivery should continue to be developed and refreshed over time based on changing patterns of substance use and on what has worked well in the past. Messaging should be co-designed with young people and targeted for specific groups attending music festivals. Event organisers should work in collaboration with the peer based harm reduction programs to develop targeted harm reduction and health promotion messaging.

Music festival organisers should access the Guidelines for Music Festival Event Organisers: Music Festival Harm Reduction for full details of their responsibilities. Click here for the Guidelines.

Peer Based Harm Reduction Programs

Your Service Hub is an online directory of alcohol and other drugs support, health and welfare services. If you need support for your own or someone else's substance use, you should use terms in Find Services like:

• drug and alcohol family support
  

• drug and alcohol Aboriginal services 
  

• drug counselling
  

• drug and alcohol rehabilitation
  

• drug and alcohol residential treatment
  

along with your suburb name to narrow the search to services near you.

Not sure what service you need? Call the Alcohol and Drug Information Service on 1800 250 015.

​The Get Healthy Service Alcohol Program is a free telephone-based coaching service designed to support you to make healthy lifestyle changes and reduce your alcohol consumption.

The Get Healthy Service offers up to 10 coaching calls to support you to achieve a healthy weight, eat healthier, increase your levels of physical activity and reduce your alcohol consumption by making small simple changes to your lifestyle.

If you are, or know someone who is worried about their level of alcohol consumption then the alcohol reduction program is highly recommended. Our health coach will assess the risk of drinking and provide support and motivation needed to help you reach your health goal. The program uses the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), an internationally validated screening tool to screen for alcohol risk.

What's included?

You will receive 10 free coaching sessions with their own personal health coach and a book containing information about appropriate alcohol intake, an alcohol facts booklet and an alcohol journey book to help keep participants motivated and record their progress.

How to Enrol

The NSW Get Healthy Service is available Mon – Fri 8am – 8pm. To enrol simply call 1300 806 258 or register online at www.gethealthynsw.com.au to start your get healthy journey.

Learn more about how the Get Healthy Service can help you here.

For the cost of a local call (except from mobiles), professional Quitline advisors provide encouragement and support to help you cut down, quit smoking or stay quit. Quitline also offers multilingual services.

Call Quitline and

• Request a free quit kit
• Talk to the specially trained telephone advisors
• Take part in the free callback service, where advisors ring back to support you while you are quitting

Saturday and Sunday 9.00am – 5.00pm

Public Holidays 9.00am – 5.00pm​

Outside these hours you are welcome to leave a message with your name and contact phone number and a Quitline Advisor will call you back.

Websites for quitting

NSW Quitline website
Australian Quitline website
Smartphone Apps for Quitting 

Callers can phone the following numbers to speak with a Quitline Advisor in their own language or to leave a message to be called back in their own language. Message instructions are given in the appropriate language.

This is a line for people who have concerns about psychostimulants (crystal, ice, coke, MDMA, etc) use. STL operates 24 hours, 7days a week, offering education, information, support, referral, and counselling for people concerned about stimulants, STL can also refer people to treatment services that specialise in psychostimulants.

 STL was established when it was recognized that there was an increasing and problematic use of methamphetamines like crystal or ice in the community. It was also recognized that many people who used these types of drugs were hesitant in approaching traditional alcohol and other drug services.

 The STL can provide brief intervention to callers and may also provide referral to other, non-specialist alcohol and other drug services, including the Stimulant Treatment Program (STP). STP provides itensive counselling and other interventions, including medication, for those people who are wanting help to cutdown or stop their psychostimulant use.

headspace is the National Youth Mental Health Foundation, providing mental health services to 12-25 year-olds. 

headspace services cover four core areas: mental health, physical health (including sexual health), work and study support and alcohol and other drug services. Services are confidential, youth friendly and free or low cost. Young people and their families can access information online at headspace.org.au, face-to-face services at one of over 100 headspace centres across Australia, or via eheadspace – a national online and telephone counselling service.