As mentioned in my last post, music festivals today have been heavily influenced by a former festival known as Woodstock. As you may or may not know, Woodstock was frowned upon by many because of the very publicized drug usage that went around during that time, which was one of the major factors that led to it’s ending. The most popular drugs at the festival were marijuana, LSD, heroin and amphetamines. Although this may seem pretty bad, surprisingly during the 1969 Woodstock there was only one death from drug usage and that was of a heroin overdose. In an article written on teenrehabcenter.org, thirty-one-year-old Washington, D.C. resident Mathew V explains his point of view at music festivals and says “Drugs bring your mind to a different place. It feels cool to see things that aren’t there and make your brain think differently. For example, when you read a book, you start thinking a different way. That’s what people do at festivals. You get into the groove of the music. Drugs and festivals go together like beer and cigarettes.” This quote say a whole lot!  Because of how broadcasted drug usage is today around the music festivals it tends to push people away which I find very sad. The festival goers who bring these drugs in and use them really bring a bad name to the scene and ultimately lead to the frowning upon all the festival goers. Below is a graph of reported deaths at music concerts in the U.S. and Canada, from 2010-2013.

This may seem very alarming at first but I actually believe that it is not that bad considering the millions of people who go to music festivals every year. I just want to show people that drugs should not deter you from going to the festivals and you really don’t need drugs to have a good time at these events. The experience is all about how you make it for yourself and drugs should not influence that.

• Header picture is of a common drug used at music festivals called MDMA or also known as “Molly”.