As temperatures rise and music festival season kicks into gear across the United States, hundreds of thousands of people will flock to fields, deserts and forests for days of dancing, connection and, for many, drug use. Harm reduction organizations have long advocated for increasing the presence of drug-checking tools, like fentanyl test strips and reagent test kits, at music festivals to help attendees navigate an unregulated supply.
A study recently published in the Harm Reduction Journal investigated how many music festival attendees leverage these tools and what barriers they face. The authors surveyed 227 people at the Sonic Bloom Festival, a four-day EDM event held in Colorado, about their experiences with drug-checking strips and kits.
Among those surveyed, 75 percent reported having used reagent test kits, while 66 percent had used fentanyl test strips. A majority indicated that they test “always” or “most of the time” before using substances.
“I think it speaks to this being a really empowering tool for people,” lead author Cianna Piercey, of Colorado State University, told Filter.
These encouraging findings demonstrate the growing normalization of drug checking at music festivals—helping people to know what’s in their substances, and to make informed decisions to protect themselves. But a variety of obstacles prevent many people from taking full advantage of these tools.
“Access is still really difficult for people.”
One major barrier to access in the United States is the Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act of 2002, commonly known as the RAVE Act, which was designed to hold nightclub venue owners responsible for drug use at their events. The act discourages many EDM event organizers in the US from providing drug-checking services on-site.
Numerous countries have better policy landscapes for festival drug checking. In 2021, New Zealand became the first to permanently and explicitly legalize it—but such services had already operated for years in many other places, too, with differing levels of official or tacit permission.
Though there are exceptions in the US, limited support for drug-checking services on-site at music festivals and concerts means that attendees are typically left to their own devices.
“People often have to rely on checking their own drugs or relying on friends to check drugs for them,” Piercey said. “Access is still really difficult for people.”
According to many Sonic Bloom attendees, the lack of institutional support for drug checking at music festivals creates a lot of problems. From sourcing and purchasing test kits, to traveling with potentially criminalized “drug paraphernalia,” to properly using the tools under stressful conditions, festival goers faced roadblocks every step of the way. Several reported that they could not afford to purchase their own test kits. Others feared the risks of flying with drug-checking supplies, given that they are criminalized in many states.
Piercey noted that these results were especially startling given Colorado’s relatively permissive policy landscape. For festivals in other locations, sourcing test strips and kits could be even more challenging.
“People are basically trying to perform like a little science experiment, right? And they’re outside. If it’s super-windy, they might lose their entire sample.”
“In Denver, there’s a storefront that actually sells reagent test kits. That’s not very common,” she said. “People normally would have to order reagents online ahead of time … and that in and of itself is a huge barrier.”
Even Sonic Bloom attendees who were able to successfully bring their own drug-checking supplies struggled to use them. Heat, wind, rain and other challenging weather conditions presented obstacles to proper use.
“People are basically trying to perform like a little science experiment, right? And they’re outside,” Piercey explained. “If they’re testing a powder, for example, if it’s super-windy, they might lose their entire sample.”
A particular challenge with reagents is that they must be kept cool to maintain their effectiveness, and can degrade quickly without refrigeration. Ice at music festivals is often prohibitively expensive, if it’s even available at all, increasing the risk that reagent tests won’t be effective.
Some simple solutions include explicitly allowing attendees to bring their own drug-checking supplies.
Based on the results of their survey, the authors suggest several ways that music festivals can reduce barriers to personal drug checking. Some simple solutions include explicitly allowing attendees to bring their own drug-checking supplies, providing on-site training sessions that demonstrate how to use these tools, and creating weather-shielded spaces for testing.
Where legally possible, more festivals could also partner with harm reduction organizations to offer free or sliding-scale drug-checking services. This would help ensure that all attendees, regardless of their budget or travel constraints, have access to on-site supplies and expert guidance.
While these interventions could help music festivals create a safer space for substance use, they don’t solve the deeper issue of the structural conditions that necessitate drug checking in the first place.
“All of this wouldn’t be necessary if people knew what was in the substances that they’re consuming to begin with,” Piercey said, “instead of having to perform a science experiment every time that they want to take a substance.”
Photograph by Vinicius Garcia via Pexels