As this year’s Boomtown festival gets underway, a coroner has completed his inquest into the death of a festival-goer who died at the event last year after taking MDMA he had purchased from a dealer on site.
In his report, coroner Nicholas Walker urges the festival and its local police force to do more to tackle drug use at the festival, saying that “unchecked, open and free trade in unlawful drugs” at the event “will create a risk of future deaths”.
Walker adds that he “heard evidence that illegal drugs were freely available to purchase” at Boomtown last year, with a friend of the man who died describing how “dealers would walk through the campsites shouting the names of the drugs they were offering to supply”.
This took place “as regularly as every 20 minutes”, the friend claimed, adding that “they saw nothing done to try and disrupt this trade”.
Some changes have already been made to the policing of this year’s Boomtown, while the festival and local police force have until September to specifically respond to Walker’s report.
In a statement, the festival’s organisers said, “We thank the coroner for his thorough investigation, which highlights the ongoing and very real risks posed by drugs - even where strong harm reduction measures are in place. We will now work with the police to respond to the coroner’s report”.
There has been much debate over the years on how best to deal with the sale and consumption of illegal drugs at music festivals. All festivals will officially have a zero tolerance policy, though how that is communicated and enforced will differ from event to event.
Another UK festival happening this weekend, Boardmasters, has been proactive in communicating its zero tolerance policy this year. A BBC report ahead of the event notes that there will be drug detection dogs at all entry points and anyone carrying illegal substances will be refused entry and could face arrest.
Ben Asprey from Devon And Cornwall Police, who is in charge of the festival’s police operations, told the BBC, “Drug suppliers don’t sell drugs for fun or as a public service, they sell entirely for profit and have no concern about the harmful effects the substances they sell could have on people who buy them”.
However, most event organisers recognise that a zero tolerance policy won’t actually stop all festival-goers from taking drugs and that effective harm reduction activities require some flexibility in the rules. Though quite how much flexibility is possible will depend on the position taken by local police.
And even where official festival communications acknowledge drug use - for example, by having experts test drugs that are in circulation at a festival and then communicate any specific concerns identified - there can still be a crackdown on those who are dealing.
Walker’s report into the drug-related death at Boomtown 2024 would suggest that much more could have been done at the festival last year to tackle dealers on site.
And cracking down on dealers is seemingly part of the plan for policing this year’s edition, according to Tony Rowlinson from Boomtown’s local police force, the Hampshire And Isle Of Wight Constabulary.
He says, “public safety is our absolute priority”, adding “we work to national guidance around policing large festivals and events, and do so in close collaboration with key partners, including the event organiser”.
Acknowledging the concerns raised in Walker’s report, he goes on, “we will continue to discuss these with the event organisers before providing a response to the coroner within the required timeframe”.
“As part of our forward planning for this year’s event”, he then explains, “we had reviewed last year’s plans and worked with the organisers to implement measures which strengthen the event partnership’s ability to disrupt anyone suspected to be involved in supplying drugs”.