{"id":359,"date":"2025-05-23T22:04:39","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T22:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.evansvilleschools.org\/?p=359"},"modified":"2025-07-25T15:17:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T15:17:35","slug":"music-festival-attendees-face-hurdles-testing-substances-despite-overdose-crisis-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.evansvilleschools.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/23\/music-festival-attendees-face-hurdles-testing-substances-despite-overdose-crisis-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Festival Attendees Face Hurdles Testing Substances Despite Overdose Crisis, Study Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study published in the Harm Reduction Journal<\/em> <\/em>examining drug-checking practices at music festivals has revealed a complex web of barriers preventing attendees from testing substances for safety.<\/p>\n

The research surveyed 227 attendees of Sonic Bloom, a four-day EDM festival in Colorado, about their use of drug-checking tools, including reagent test kits and fentanyl test strips. Approved by Colorado State University’s Institutional Review Board, the findings suggest that while drug-checking tools represent a promising harm reduction strategy, multiple systemic challenges limit their effectiveness in real-world settings like music festivals.<\/p>\n

The study highlights a lack of education about testing procedures, which has led to “a critical need to reduce barriers” for the “at-risk population” of festival-goers despite an increase in public health campaigns about substance contamination.<\/p>\n

Financial barriers emerged as a primary concern, with nearly 8% of participants citing the cost of reagent test kits as prohibitive, while about 7%\u00a0found fentanyl test strips too expensive. More significantly, roughly one in four participants struggled to obtain testing materials at all.<\/p>\n

“No access to free test strips in my entire county,” said one 28-year-old woman surveyed in the study.<\/p>\n

Even when attendees possessed testing materials, the festival environments themselves created obstacles. Weather conditions, particularly wind, made outdoor testing especially difficult for powdered substances. More than 11% of participants cited festival restrictions as barriers, noting that many events prohibit drug-checking services or ban testing supplies entirely.<\/p>\n

“Some festivals do not allow testing kit sales or the entrance of them\u2014this should be allowed to curate a better experience,” said one respondent.<\/p>\n

The lack of secure, sterile testing locations at festivals further complicated efforts to check substances safely. Several participants expressed frustration with having to conduct testing in exposed, unsanitary conditions.<\/p>\n

Legal concerns also deterred some festival-goers from using testing tools. Participants reported confusion about the legality of possessing reagent kits and fentanyl strips, with some believing the materials could be classified as drug paraphernalia.<\/p>\n

“In some states it’s a felony to carry test kits,” noted a 31-year-old participant, though the legal status of testing materials varies significantly by jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

You can find the full study in the\u00a0Harm Reduction Journal<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new study published in the Harm Reduction Journal examining drug-checking practices at music festivals has revealed a complex web of barriers preventing attendees from testing substances for safety. The research surveyed 227 attendees of Sonic Bloom, a four-day EDM festival in Colorado, about their use of drug-checking tools, including reagent test kits and fentanyl […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.evansvilleschools.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.evansvilleschools.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.evansvilleschools.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.evansvilleschools.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.evansvilleschools.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.evansvilleschools.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":360,"href":"http:\/\/www.evansvilleschools.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359\/revisions\/360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.evansvilleschools.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.evansvilleschools.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.evansvilleschools.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.evansvilleschools.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}