Between September 2018 and January 2019, five young people died after attending music festivals in NSW. While there has been much policy deliberation surrounding these events, these tragedies have highlighted a lack of current and localised information about the circumstances surrounding acute harm events following drug use among Australian festivalgoers.

Drug use at music festivals has become a public safety concern in NSW, one that has led to a number of deaths in recent years. This paper provides an overview of the main recommendations of the Expert Panel report entitled Keeping People Safe at Music Festivals, released by the NSW Government on 24 October 2018.

Following the tragic deaths of two young people who attended a music festival in September 2018, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian convened an expert panel to advise the NSW government on how to keep people safe at music festivals.

The 2018 Garma Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary, hosted by the Youth Yindi foundation. This report outlines some of the festival's highlights.

An action of the Creative State strategy, the Victorian Creative Industries Festivals Review looked at the strengths of the state’s festivals, the issues they face and ways to maintain a high-quality, diverse and accessible program that meets contemporary and future needs.