Pubdate: Mon, 13 Jul 2015
Source: Chronicle Herald (CN NS)
Copyright: 2015 The Halifax Herald Limited
Contact:  http://www.herald.ns.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180
Author: Aaron Beswick

DRUGS TAKE CENTRE STAGE AT EVOLVE MUSIC FESTIVAL

BLACK AVON - "Our ride ditched us," said Cassandra Barnes.

On Monday morning, she and her friends, Aerlynn Spellman, Ksenia
Azanova, and Chelsea Tobin, all in their early 20s, were on the side
of a dirt road in Antigonish County with a cardboard sign reading Halifax.

The guitars and synthesizers of the Evolve music festival's 126 acts
were silent and the remnants of the approximately 5,000 attendees were
moving slowly in the hot sun, packing up and heading home Monday.

"People do them," Spellman said, referring to drug use at music
festivals.

"It helps them escape reality."

Tobin was quick to cut her off.

"That's not my reason - I'd say they enhance reality," she
said.

In the week leading up to the festival, it wasn't Evolve's efforts to
reduce its environmental footprint or its contribution to the local
economy that were at the forefront of the media discussion; it was
drug use.

That conversation started

when festival owner Jonas Colter announced there would be free drug
testing at Evolve so that attendees choosing to use drugs could find
out exactly what they were taking.

The move toward harm reduction while admitting drug use happens was
seen as a potential liability by Evolve's insurance company, which
threatened to pull its coverage if Colter didn't abandon the testing
plan.

He did, for this year at least.

So the festival went on and the RCMP were busy - they answered 30
calls, up from 21 last year - at Evolve.

They laid seven drug trafficking charges, 12 charges of possession for
the purpose of trafficking and four for impaired driving.

"We had a heavy presence in the area," said Sgt. Brian Rehill of
Antigonish RCMP.

"We were steady all weekend."

Among the service calls were three to support paramedics assisting
people displaying symptoms of drug overdose. One of those who
overdosed was transported by LifeFlight to Queen Elizabeth II Health
Sciences Centre in Halifax, where he remains.

"I can't compare it to other concerts, because this is our one big
one," said Rehill.

"This is my only real experience of a concert of this
type."

So what is the role of music festival organizers when they are aware
of drug use by some of their attendees?

In the week leading up to the festival, the two sides of the argument
formed ranks.

Conservative MLA John Lohr called the testing "ridiculous and
dangerous," and said Colter was "promoting the use of illegal hard
drugs" by offering testing.

Meanwhile, Amy Graves, who founded the organization Get Prescription
Drugs Off the Street after losing her brother to a hydromorphone
overdose in 2011, championed Evolve's move toward testing.

"Drug use and abuse is inevitable in our society," Graves said. "In
those instances where you can't prevent drug use completely, a
harm-reduction model needs to be in place."

Evolve isn't the only festival where drug use happens.

According to the Globe and Mail, 80 people were admitted to hospital
and one woman died of a suspected drug overdose during the 2014
Boonstock festival in Penticton, B.C.

At the 2014 Pemberton Music Festival, also in British Columbia, a man
was found dead in his tent, and at Toronto's Veld Music Festival, two
people died after taking drugs and another 13 were sent to hospital.

The Shambhala Music Festival, near Nelson, B.C., has led the charge in
harm-reduction strategies by offering the same kind of testing of
drugs to festivalgoers that Colter sought to have in place this year
at Evolve.

Michael Pullen, who was in charge of about 70 private security workers
at Evolve, said his staff have adopted the strategy of building
relationships with local emergency responders and with festival goers.

So the police were welcomed onto the site to do patrols, the Pomquet
Volunteer Fire Department was on site and paramedics were present.

"We're not the cops," Pullen said of his security team.

"Our purpose is not to enforce the law, it's to keep people safe. Our
focus is on harm reduction."

Asked about the culture of drug use that is apparent at many music
festivals, he responded: "We live in a fairly free society in which
adults have choices to make and boundaries to explore - this is a safe
place for people to explore."

John MacDonald, the fifth-generation of his family living on the
100-hectare former farm in Black Avon where Evolve has been held the
past 11 years, cut Pullen off.

"People can explore without doing drugs," said MacDonald.

"I love having the festival here and meeting all the wonderful people.
99.9 per cent are perfect, but one bad apple gets a lot of bad media
attention."

Pullen said this year's festival went off smoothly and the few
"isolated incidents weren't indicative of the culture of the festival."

On Monday afternoon, Julianna Bagnell was wearing a fluffy rabbit hat
and sat beside her backpack waiting for a friend to come drive her
home to Dartmouth.

Asked why some people take drugs at music festivals, the 28-year-old
said that everyday life is filled with worries and frustrations and
that "a good break from reality once a year can be helpful."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt