Stereosonic Festival in Australia suffered another death over the weekend on its five city tour across the country. After a 25-year-old Sylvia Choi died of a suspected drug overdose on day one of the Stereosonic tour in Sydney, another man, Stefan Woodward, 19 died after being rushed to a local hospital after attending the EDM festival in Adelaide. As a result of the second death, many are wondering how this could have happened with the heightened police presence and if these heavy-handed approaches should give way to pill testing.
Woodward was in his final year of high school at Seaton High School.
His mother spoke via the Herald Sun about the tragedy and her hope that this tragedy is used as a learning experience so that festivals will hire more support staff in the future.
"I want organizers of events like these to make sure there is enough first aid on offer to make sure that no one gets turned away, and no one feels they need to wait.
I want friends to look after each and make sure it's never considered weak to ask for help. And I want young boys and girls like Stefan to never be too scared to ask for help."
Before the festival made its three-city run this past weekend, organizers warned patrons of the dangers of drugs and told them to be responsible, while looking out for each other.
"We cannot express our concerns highly enough regarding the dangers of drug use. We have tragically lost two lives to drugs during our festival and whilst every effort has been made to protect you and keep you safe with our teams of professional medical and security staff, you as individuals need to make smart choices and understand the risks you are taking.
As media reports have indicated there are various highly dangerous substances on the market and there is no way of knowing what is in them."
With a second death over the duration of the festival and hundreds of other arrests and dozens of hospitalizations, the call for pill testing has grown louder as individuals look for a way to try another way of preventing festival-goers from harming themselves with unknown substances.
Independent senator Nick Xenophon has called for a coronial inquest into Woodward's death according to Billboard. "We need to ask questions of what the police were doing. Thirty-five pills were confiscated when it appears that this concert was awash with pills. Using these pills seems to be a chemical form of Russian roulette," said the senator. "The other issue is what duty of care do the organizers of this event have."
