Photo: Poppy Pix (Shutterstock)
If your festival experience is enhanced by taking psychoactive substances, be smart about it. Don’t take drugs you’re not familiar with—festivals generally aren’t the best setting for experimentation. Also: If the drugs you enjoy aren’t legal where the festival is being held, understand the risks you are taking by possessing or using them. Festivals usually search you at the entrance, and some festivals even employ drug-sniffing dogs. Undercover police work festivals and are drawn to people acting suspiciously.
Speaking of drug dealers: Strangers selling illegal drugs are rarely people you should trust, and sometimes potentially lethal substances laced with fentanyl are encountered. That said, of the 250,000 attendees of Coachella in 2020, there were no deadly overdoses, and only 112 festival-goers were arrested—85 for intoxication, three for selling drugs, and the rest for property crimes and fake IDs.
