The NSW Government will bring state-supported drug checking to up to 15 festivals from October 2026

The NSW Government will introduce state-supported drug checking at up to 15 selected music festivals from October 2026, following a 12-month trial that ran at 12 festivals between March 2025 and February 2026. More than 1,800 people used the services during the trial and around 1,500 samples were tested.

The trial was led by the University of Sydney, with a forensic chemist and a peer worker from NUAA on hand to explain results and advise on consumption and drug combinations. It followed a recommendation from NSW Deputy State Coroner Magistrate Harriet Graham after the 2019 inquest into the deaths of six young people at music festivals. UNSW Associate Professor Phillip Wadds said there has been demand for drug checking for a really long time, and pointed to amnesty bins as a way of removing something potentially dangerous from circulation straight away.

Permanent drug checking sites already operate in the ACT and Victoria, and Wadds hopes NSW will eventually open fixed sites too. The festivals and dates for the new rollout haven’t been named yet.