- 14 drug overdoses at the Knockout Festival
- Small fraction of festivalgoers used pill testing service
A 12-month pill testing trial in NSW has come under scrutiny after a popular music festival recently recorded more than a dozen drug overdoses.
About 60,000 music fans flocked to the Knockout Festival at Sydney Olympic Park last Saturday, where at least 14 suspected overdoses were reported.
NSW Health confirmed five attendees were rushed to hospital as ‘urgent medical transfers’ while another three were later admitted due to drug use at the event, the Daily Telegraph reported.
It comes just two years after Jason Lee, 26, and Edward Lui, 21, died in separate drug-related incidents at the Knockout Festival.
Pill testing was conducted at last Saturday’s event as part of the NSW government trial introduced last December.
Just 319 of the 60,000 festivalgoers took advantage of the trial to check the substances inside the illicit drugs they had planned to take.
It has raised questions about whether the trial will continue into 2026 with NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman claiming there was ‘no evidence it saved lives’.
‘In fact it may encourage a false sense of security,’ he told the publication.
At least 14 suspected overdoses were reported at the Knockout Festival in Sydney Olympic Park last weekend
Questions have been raised about the NSW pill testing trial
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said that the trial gives health workers the opportunity to intervene before someone takes a drug.
‘It may be that an individual who intends to use an illicit substance will do so, irrespective of the warnings and intervention of health workers through the drug-checking initiative,’ he said.
‘Ultimately, this trial is based on the reasoning that intervention from health workers through drug checking is preferable than no intervention at all.’
Queensland became the first Australian state to ban pill testing last month.
Trials continue in NSW and Victoria, while the ACT, the first Australian state/territory to trial drug checking will continue pill testing until June 2027.
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