Pill Testing Comes to Beyond The Valley

Beyond The Valley will be the first festival in Victoria to enable punters to test drugs on site.

When the four-day camping fest returns from December 28 in Barunah Plains, on Wadawurrung and Eastern Maar, drug checking facilities will be provided, an initiative to “prioritise the health and safety” of attendees, which should number approximately 35,000, reps say.

The announcement came from the top, by way of a statement Sunday from the Allan Labor Government.

Premier Jacinta Allan and Minister for Mental Health Ingrid Stitt visited Melbourne Showgrounds to break the news and unveil the consortium that will deliver the mobile pill testing service, led by Youth Support and Advocacy Service, in partnership with The Loop Australia and Harm Reduction Victoria.

“This is a simple and common-sense way to save lives,” says Allan. “Let’s be clear: no drug is safe, but people deserve to know if that one pill will kill.”

A fixed pill testing site will also be established and operational by mid-2025 in inner Melbourne, close to nightlife and public transport, according to a press release from the state government.

A spokesperson for Untitled Group, which produces BTV, comments: “BTV has a decade-long history of working with authorities to deliver safe events. We are constantly exploring ideas, trialling new innovations and bolstering proven initiatives that increase the safety of festivalgoers, so they can have a good time and also make it home safely.”

The spokesperson adds, “We look forward to working alongside our community, health agencies, the Victorian Government, and the wider festival industry to ensure this initiative reaches and supports the right people.”

With the BTV development, Victoria becomes the second state to trial pill-testing following a program a Queensland’s Rabbit Eats Lettuce festival, presented over the Easter long weekend earlier in the year.

Talk on pill testing finally became action when, in April 2018, the Groovin the Moo festival in the Australian Capital Territory became the first to test drugs. Organisers later confirm two potentially deadly samples were identified and half the drugs tested were found to contain no psychoactive substances.

The Victorian trial follows the passing of the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Pill Testing) Bill 2024, which made state the first jurisdiction in Australia to have dedicated legislation to support pill testing.

Alongside the Bill, the state has activated a $95 million action plan to reduce opiate drug deaths and harm now underway.