UPDATE: Beyond The Valley Festival Death: Man Had Snake Venom In His System, Family Says
ORIGINAL STORY: A 20-year-old man has died following a suspected drug overdose at Victoria’s Beyond The Valley festival.
Police say the man, from Mansfield in Victoria’s northeast, was airlifted to hospital in a critical condition on Saturday night but tragically passed away this morning.
In a statement to the ABC, a Victoria Police spokeswoman said investigations are underway to determine the circumstances surrounding the man’s death, but added that it was “not being treated as suspicious”.
The tragedy comes after a fatal overdose at Lost Paradise Festival on the NSW Central Coast just before the New Year.
A 22-year-old Queensland man died and two other people were hospitalised after ingesting an “unknown substance”.
The national campaign for drug law reform Take Control responded to the tragedy by once again pleading with the NSW government to make music festivals safer by reconsidering their staunch opposition to pill-testing.
“This doesn’t need to be the summer of festival deaths,” Ted Noffs Foundation CEO and campaign spokesperson Matt Noffs said.
Take Control are urging to sign an open letter to the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, essentially begging her to listen to the evidence and reconsider trialling life-saving pill-testing measures at NSW festivals.
Meanwhile, Falls Festival organisers have issued a warning to attendees to steer clear of illicit drugs, particularly a “dangerous orange pill” doing the rounds.
