Aussie Festival Acts Call For Drug Dog Ban

Dan McNamee of Sydney electro-trio Art vs. Science wrote to his local Member of Parliament, Don Page, asking him to support a trial ban on sniffer dogs at this year’s Splendour in the Grass festival.

The event runs in Byron Bay July 25-27, and sold out in May. The trio plays the event for the fifth time since 2008.

McNamee pointed out, “Automatically you will cut out the number of hospitalisations due to people panicking upon sight of the dogs and ingesting their whole weekend’s supply of drugs. This actually led to the deaths of a young woman at the Perth Big Day Out 2009 and a young man at a festival called Defqon 1 in Sydney’s West last year.”

New figures by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre backed up his call.

They showed that 13 percent of festivalgoers admitted they used up some of their drugs before entering, and that fear of detection led to a move away from pot to a 40 percent increase in the intake of ecstasy and speed.

Ireland’s Two Door Cinema Club pulled out of Splendour as a result of singer Alex Trimble’s collapse at Seattle airport and hospitalisation with a chronic stomach complaint. They were replaced by Foals within hours.