Defqon.1 Australia invited to relocate with the possibility for pill-testing

By Nina van Zelst 08 October 2018

The organisation of Defqon.1 Australia received a letter from Shane Rattenbury last week, leader of the ATC Greens political party. In this letter, he offered to relocate all future Defqon.1 events to the capital of Australia: Canberra. Furthermore, he discussed the possibility for pill-testing during the festival.

ALSO READ: Australian Premier backs out of decision about Defqon.1

The tenth edition of Defqon.1 Australia took place the 15th of September in Sydney. Unfortunately, 2 people died and 13 more ended up hospitalized. The Premier of the Australian state of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, responded to these events by completely banning the festival (for more information about this you can read the article linked above). Now, the organisation has been invited to relocate to a different city:

“I would like to encourage you to consider relocating future festivals and events to Canberra where a pill testing facility may be established to minimise drug harm for festival patrons.

The Greens want to do our best to ensure festival-goers have a good time in the safest ways possible, rather than taking avoidable risks.”

Pill-testing an ”overwhelming success”

Even though Berejiklian stated to never allow pill-testing, Rattenbury does seem to think it’s a good idea. He also told that research about pill-testing at the Groovin the Moo Festival showed that it was an ”overwhelming success”. We will have to wait and see whether Q-dance Australia will accept the offer for relocation.