Sydney’s Field Day festival kicked in the New Year with a record number of drug-related arrests.
The popular New Years Day festival attracted over 24,500 attendees with 214 people arrested for taking drugs into Field Day. According to police, this is a 50 percent increase on arrests since last year’s festival and the highest number of drug-related arrests at a one day festival in the country.
Police say the high number of arrests was largely due to a drug-sniffing K-9 unit.
“The drug-dog operation this year resulted in the most arrests police have made in the history of the festival, which is extremely concerning and shows that some attendees are still not getting the message,” Sydney’s Chief Inspector, Stuart Bell told ABC News.
According to police, a variety of drugs were seized on the day, including ecstasy, cannabis, cocaine, LSD, ice and amphetamines.
Just the day before Field Day, a 26-year-old man died at the Falls Music and Arts Festival in Byron Bay. NSW Police are treating his death as “non-suspicious,” and declined to comment on the cause of his death until an autopsy is conducted.
On the same day, 63 people were arrested at the BW Summer Festival in New Zealand after a small group of males sparked off a riot.
The future of BW, New Zealand’s “premier beachside camping festival,” is now in jeopardy.
83 people were injured during the incident after beer cans, and tents poles were thrown. Vehicles were also overturned and tents set alight during the riot. Seven people were hospitalised.