Rainbow Serpent organisers have defended festival patrons, saying the overwhelming majority of its 16,000 attendees were well behaved while enjoying the four-day celebration.
Meanwhile, Victoria Police Commissioner, Graham Ashton, is contemplating shutting down the festival by denying safety permits necessary for the festival to proceed. He told 3AW's Neil Mitchell that local police were "fed up" with the crime associated with the event.
However, the festival's Director Tim Harvey has issued a statement outlining the good behaviour of the vast majority of attendees and the parallel crime statistics emanating from events such as an AFL Grand Final, observing "no one's calling for the Grand Final to be banned".
PHOTO GALLERY: RAINBOW SERPENT 2016
The controversy feeds into the current national discussion concerning festivals, venue lock-outs and general public behaviour.
In further support of the event, Pyrenees Shire mayor, Michael O’Connor, says he sees no reason to doubt the future of the event. “From council’s point of view the event will be reviewed as per the usual process and there is nothing I have seen at this stage that would indicate the future of the festival should be in doubt.”
Mr. Harvey said, “We, as festival organisers, face the same issues that impact general society and that includes a minority of people who don’t always do the right thing. Police have advised us, through the media, that approximately one in eight drivers out of over 300 tested leaving the festival returned positive drug results.”
“It’s a matter of public record that police roadside testing around Melbourne over the Grand Final weekend returned similar results,” said Mr. Harvey, “In fact, one in three drivers in just one suburb alone were found to be impaired that weekend but no one is calling for the Grand Final to be banned.”
Internationally recognised toxicologist and emergency doctor attending the festival for academic purposes, Dr. David Caldicott, said the festival’s health services and resources were of the highest calibre. "I have to say it was one of the most impressive endeavours in this country. I think they're doing it as well as anyone in Australia is; I think it's one of the best practices in Australia."
Festival organisers said the success of their campaign educating patrons about the dangers of impaired driving has been proven by police statistics from successive years of roadside testing after the event. “We consider it a great success to have police statistics showing the number of positive tests from drivers leaving the site in 2016 has been halved from last year,” said Mr. Harvey, “We attribute that change to communication initiatives we implemented and will continue that educate our patrons on health and wellbeing matters”.
Over 16,000 people attended the 19th annual event held in Lexton, Victoria between Thursday and Monday afternoon.
