Dear reader,
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a small music festival up north. It was a relaxed weekend—mostly daytime shows and young families. The rowdiest people in the crowd were probably the toddlers who were skipping their naps.
My days of weaving through masses of belligerent partiers at giant music fests are behind me, but I remember them well—the throbbing bass, the sweltering heat, the throngs of drunk and stoned teens and 20-somethings. One thing I don’t remember seeing is drug-testing. But, on my recent outing, beside the merch and beer tents, I spotted a harm-reduction booth where volunteers were testing samples of people’s drugs, without judgment and free of charge. Festival culture has changed a lot in the wake of the opioid epidemic—and for the better.
In 2015, Toronto Life writer Lauren McKeon told a very different story, reporting on the city’s booming electronic dance music scene and the shocking number of overdoses at festivals. For most EDM fans, McKeon wrote, the euphoric high of party drugs eclipsed the danger.
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