Image: Electric Parade Festival / Facebook

Police Cast Doubt Over Future Of Electric Parade Festival

Police have cast doubt over the future of Sydney and Melbourne’s Electric Parade Festival, after dozens of people suffered drug overdoses at the Melbourne leg of the event over the weekend.

Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Stephen Leane says police will meet with festival organisers to discuss whether or not they should be allowed to host events in the future, as 7 News reports.

“(We will determine) whether they should be allowed access to another venue,” Mr Leane says.

Four people were left in a critical condition following the Melbourne leg of this year’s Electric Parade Festival, but have since been released from hospital. At least 22 people are believed to have received hospital treatment following the event, with a number of others treated by paramedics.

It was originally suspected that the synthetic drug GHB was responsible for the overdoses, but some doctors now suspect it was a derivative of the drug, called GBL.

Following the Melbourne leg of Electric Parade, the Sydney leg took place on Sunday, 19th February. NSW Ambulance has confirmed to Music Feeds that no one was treated for drug overdoses at the event, while NSW Police has also confirmed that it isn’t aware of any incidents at the festival, including any arrests.

Police arrested 40 people at the Melbourne leg of the event, including one man who was charged after quantities of ecstasy, cocaine, MDMA, LSD, ketamine and hash were allegedly found on him.

Music Feeds has contacted Electric Parade organisers for comment on the festival’s future.

The mass of overdoses at Electric Parade in Melbourne come after a leaked police memo revealed that a recent “bad batch” of MDMA in Melbourne contained a deadly “cocktail” of dangerous substances.

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