At Yours & Owls festival in Wollongong, you may have noticed a unique service hidden away inside a white tent, a safe space where punters could discuss their drug use history and intentions. This was NSW’s first festival drug checking service. But, as with any new harm reduction service, people naturally raise a number of concerns. Users News is here to provide the answers.

In a first for NSW, NUAA, the organisation that publishes Users News, will be teaming up with NSW Health to provide a drug checking service at the Yours & Owls festival in Wollongong on the March 1-2 weekend. NUAA will be providing peer support to help festival goers navigate the new service with zero judgment.

Amid the rolling waves of psy trance dugga-dugga-dugga at Dragon Dreaming Festival, an anonymous community member roamed the crowd, testing people’s drugs under the radar. Undertaken with home reagent testing kits, it wasn’t a legal venture. Users News spoke to this harm reduction crusader about why they chose to test punters’ drugs and what they discovered

3 ways we can reduce instances of sexual based harm, facilitate safe spaces for women at music festivals, and develop a community we are all proud of.

Just because the 'love and universal oneness' vibe is peaking, doesn't mean that everybody has pure intentions. There are still opportunistic dickheads out there.

“Peer Worker” is an emerging role in the Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) space in NSW. Not only has research shown how valuable peer education and support is, services using peer workers see the difference every day as more consumers come through their doors to have more respectful and relevant interactions.

DanceWize NSW co-ordinator Georgina Bell, who has seen first-hand the difference that harm reduction services make on the ground at festivals, raves and bush doofs.

Uh oh – you’ve been caught with drugs in your possession at a festival in NSW. What happens next depends on a few things…

“Out the back they had the strip search tents set up, and a female cop waiting for me in one. She told me I had to take all my clothes off, and then said she needed me to squat and cough.”

“Thousands of ravers have gone before you, making these same mistakes – so heed my warnings and hopefully you don’t have to!”

Users News sat down with Phill, one of the individuals behind Origins of Entropy, to discuss the role that festival organisers have in reducing harm at their events