new drugs safety measures announced for Boomtown 2017

BoomTown Fair 2017

Thursday 10th to Sunday 13th August 2017
Matterley Estate, near Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 1HW, England MAP
from £195 for the weekend - SOLD OUT

Daily capacity: 60,000

Last updated: Tue 8th Aug 2017

Boomtown Fair 2017 which happens at Matterley Estate, nr. Winchester, in Hampshire and from Thursday 10th until Sunday 13th August 2017, has announced an all encompassing approach to the drugs policy for this year’s event.

The festival is taking extensive action to increase drug awareness, education, and promote harm reduction through a variety of methods including; substance testing with The Loop, trained drug counsellors at each of the campsite hubs to help educate and support young festival goers and pre-event awareness campaigns to reach out directly to attendees to discuss messages that could have the biggest impact to further promote messages of harm reduction and safety.

After making their debut last year at Kendal Calling and Secret Garden Party, 2017 has seen The Loop invited to many more festivals, with Boomtown joining a full roster of other events for the 2017 season:

We are delighted to be able to work in partnership with Boomtown this year to help reduce drug-related harm on site. We will be providing our free, anonymous, drug safety testing - MAST - for the first time at Boomtown this year and hope that this will help inform all services on site, as well as festival-goers, who may encounter substances of concern.
Professor Fiona Measham, founder of The Loop

On top of the harm reduction aspects of the drugs policy, Boomtown Fair, Hampshire Constabulary and the onsite security teams will be working even harder to keep drugs out of the festival, with increased security searches, amnesty bins at the gates and immediate eviction for those caught attempting to get drugs into the festival.

As part of the pre-event awareness and education Boomtown have a dedicated page on their website highlighting a selection of current dangerous drug trends at festivals and events in the UK, the three main topics discussed are; the severe dangers of drug misuse, effects of mixing drugs (polydrug use), including prescription drugs, and increased strength of Ecstasy / MDMA. The festival aims to offer non judgemental facts and links in order to support and help people before, during and after the festival.

After the truly heartbreaking experience of too many young people dying across the country at events, night clubs and town centres, through drug related incidents, we want to have an open and honest discussion to make sure we are doing everything in our power to educate, protect and prevent similar incidents occurring at the festival, and beyond, in the future. There appears to be lack of education when it comes to drug use that, hopefully, with the help of The Loop and the other drug awareness measures we are implementing this year, we can at least make a start on changing the conversation to help better prepare people for the real dangers that drug experimentation poses. Boomtown organisers.

Boomtown this year has headliners including The Specials, M.I.A., Cypress Hill, Sublime with Rome, Arrested Development, Toots and the Maytals, The Original Blues Brothers Band, Ziggy Marley, Frank Turner, (plus hundreds of other acts), all set within a fully immersive, theatrically-led experience, with hundreds of actors bringing the nine uniquely themed districts to life along with the mega stage sets. For all of the line-up across nearly 30 stages please see the Boomtown line-up page.