Pill Testing Is (Finally) Coming To More NSW Music Festivals

It’s been a very long road to get here, but drug checking is officially being rolled out across NSW music festivals.

The NSW Government will introduce state-supported drug checking services at up to 15 selected music festivals from this month, following a 12-month trial that saw around 1,500 drug samples tested across the state.

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For anyone who remembers the absolute shitfight over pill testing in NSW during the late 2010’s, that represents a pretty significant change in direction.

Under former Premier Gladys Berejiklian, the NSW Government remained staunchly opposed to pill testing, despite mounting calls from sections of the music industry and recommendations for its introduction.

In 2019, following yet another drug-related festival death, Berejiklian reiterated her opposition, arguing pill testing could give people a “false sense of security”.

“Pill testing will not solve the problem that ecstasy kills,” she said at the time. “I cannot say that in stronger words.”

Then-NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller was similarly opposed, saying that year that NSW Police did not support pill testing and arguing the practice could give people “false confidence” that an illicit substance was safe.

The debate unfolded amid a much broader battle between the NSW Government and the live music sector over festival safety and regulation – a period commonly dubbed the nanny state’s “war on music festivals”.

Now, years later, drug checking is becoming part of NSW’s festival landscape.

The rollout follows an independent 12-month trial led by the University of Sydney, which operated free and anonymous drug checking services at 12 NSW festivals between March 2025 and February 2026.

The trial itself followed a recommendation from NSW Deputy State Coroner Magistrate Harriet Graham after a 2019 inquest into the deaths of six young people who had taken drugs at music festivals.

More than 1,800 people visited the drug checking services during the trial, with around 1,500 samples tested.

According to UNSW Associate Professor Dr Phillip Wadds, the uptake was hardly surprising.

“There’s been demand for drug checking for a really long time,” he said.

“People want to know what is in something they might be consuming; they want to be as safe as they can be. Not that anything’s guaranteed, but when there’s something available that can improve the safety of drug use, then many people will take that up.”

So How Does Drug Checking At A Festival Actually Work?

Festival-goers can bring a small sample of a substance they intend to consume to the free and anonymous service, where qualified health staff can test it for purity, potency and adulterants.

But Wadds stresses there’s an important educational component too.

In NSW, punters will meet with both a forensic chemist and a peer worker from NUAA, who can talk them through their results as well as provide information about consumption and specific substances.

That can include advice about the potential effects of combining drugs, such as ketamine with alcohol.

In some cases, the results can lead someone to decide not to take the substance at all.

Wadds says festival-goers who discover a substance isn’t what they thought they’d purchased may instead dispose of it in amnesty bins provided at the service.

“That immediately removes from circulation something that might’ve been really dangerous,” he said.

The Benefits Can Spread Beyond The Person Getting Their Drugs Checked

The information generated through testing can also help alert other punters, festival organisers and health services to potentially dangerous substances in circulation.

Wadds recalled attending a festival where organisers interrupted what was playing on the event’s video screens after a pressed tablet was checked.

“They literally stopped the video playing and put a picture of the pressed tablet on the screens and said, ‘if anybody has bought this type of pressed tablet, please be aware’.”

“That’s an immediate benefit to the entire community at the festival,” he added. “It’s telling people to either get it checked or think about holding off taking the drug because this is what we found in it.”

Drug checking can also give frontline health services a clearer picture of what’s circulating in an otherwise unregulated drug market.

“If a dangerous adulterant, for instance, nitazenes, is detected in different substances, alerts will be circulated to public health officials, who are then equipped to respond more effectively to what might be presenting to them in an emergency department,” Wadds said.

And the information can spread organically between punters too.

“Individuals often go to a music festival with a group of 10 friends, they share the information with those 10 friends who share with 10 more, and the knowledge grows exponentially,” Wadds said.

“The more people that engage with drug checking and other harm reduction services, the more literacy there is among communities who use drugs and that’s really important.”

Could NSW Eventually Get Permanent Drug Checking Sites?

Wadds hopes festival testing will ultimately prove to be just the beginning.

Permanent drug checking sites already operate in the ACT and Victoria, and he hopes NSW will eventually establish fixed locations of its own.

He also points to one major limitation of festival-based testing: some punters may be reluctant to approach the service because they fear being arrested on their way there amid the heavy police and surveillance presence at festivals.

“But drug checking at festivals is an entry point to conversations about what that [fixed site checking] looks like in the long term, especially when we can demonstrate the benefits in a setting like a music festival and build broader social community support for a fixed site,” he said.

Ultimately, Wadds says the more substances that can be checked, the clearer the picture becomes of what’s actually circulating.

“The more drug checking that takes place, the more insight we have into what is circulating in the drug market and that information supports better safety outcomes which is what we all want.”