Drug checking is back at NSW festivals — but only if you can afford a ticket

Fifteen festivals a year will offer on-site testing, starting this long weekend at Knockout Outdoor.

Told by Jake Donovan · 2 October 2026

Drug checking is back at NSW festivals this long weekend, and this time it's not a trial.

The NSW Government's $4.3 million programme resumes Saturday at Knockout Outdoor, the first of up to 15 festivals a year where attendees can hand over a sample, get it tested by forensic chemists from NSW Health Pathology, and hear what's actually in it from trained peer workers. NSW Health is working with the festival industry and harm reduction organisations to pick events where the service is likely to do the most good.

The trial ran across 12 festivals, tested around 1,500 samples, and saw more than 1,800 people through the tent. This is the permanent version.

Here's how it works: you bring a small sample to the drug checking tent. A forensic chemist analyses it on-site. A peer worker from NUAA — the NSW Users and AIDS Association — explains what the test found and talks you through harm reduction. Amnesty bins are there if you decide to bin it. Medical services, chill-out spaces, free water and roving harm reduction are all part of the same package.

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant was clear in the announcement: illicit drugs remain illegal, the service is not an endorsement, and drug checking is not a guarantee of safety. It's harm reduction, not a safety certificate.

Festivals will be chosen based on size, location, and where drug harm is most likely. That's a sensible model for a festival programme. But here's the structural problem: harm reduction at festivals only reaches people who go to festivals.

Uniting NSW.ACT — the organisation that runs the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in Kings Cross — welcomed the announcement and immediately pointed out the gap. Alice Salomon, Director of Advocacy and External Relations, told the media that access to proven harm reduction shouldn't depend on whether you can afford a festival ticket, where you live, or the circumstances in which you use drugs.

She's right. People use drugs at house parties, at home, in regional towns, in places that will never see a festival. Fixed-site, community-based drug checking would make the service available year-round to people who need it and can't get to Knockout Outdoor.

Uniting offered to host drug checking at St Stephen's Uniting Church on Macquarie Street, directly opposite NSW Parliament. The offer still stands.

Drug overdose deaths in Australia are double the road toll. Fifteen festivals a year is a start.

But harm reduction that only works if you can afford the ticket isn't universal healthcare. It's VIP.