Otago’s largest music festival is fast approaching and safety measures are a priority for organisers despite the lack of drug-testing facilities this year.
The festival is taking place next Monday and Tuesday in the heart of the Cardrona Valley.
Festival general manager Harry Gorringe said about 10,000 people were expected each night and there was capacity for about 6000 campers.
Safety was a significant consideration when organising the festival, especially after police issued a warning last week asking everyone to drink responsibly and urging parents to ensure children under 18 were abiding by age restrictions, he said.
Mr Gorringe made it clear the event was strictly restricted to those aged 18 and over.
"We have a number of checks and balances on drinking underage and the people using fake IDs to access the system."
He said although occasionally some underage youth got in unnoticed, it was rare and they were eventually caught and escorted outside.
Measures were also being taken to secure the safety of those attending.
However, the drug-testing services which usually attended each year were not available due to high demand.
Mr Gorringe said that although they did see value in having drug testing available, it was simply not possible this year.
"There aren’t enough spectrometers in New Zealand to facilitate all of the festivals"
He said there would be testing stations on December 28-29 in both Wānaka and Queenstown, but they would then move on to Tākaka.
He acknowledged the low availability of drug-testing services was a result of higher intakes of recreational drugs among youth in New Zealand.
Festivals across the country were also growing and Rhythm and Alps was no different with two new stages added this year.
Other measures would be in place at the event to secure the safety of those attending, including the presence of security staff, police enforcement and Red Frogs staff.
"... We work very closely with the licensing authority, with the police, with St John to ensure that we’re creating the safest possible place."
— Rawan Saadi
