Days before it is supposed to start, the future of Nova Scotia’s Evolve music festival is in jeopardy over the organizer’s move to offer free drug testing.
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The drug tests the festival wants to offer are capable of analyzing LSD, MDMA and speed.
Three EVOLVE fans were hospitalized previous year for taking a different drug than what they thought they had taken.
Attendees can hand over a small sample of their stash, and festival staff will give them a breakdown of its chemical makeup. Although no one has ever died from drug use at Evolve, drug-related medical emergencies have strained the capabilities of local emergency responders in past years.
Evolve Festival is set to run from the 9th to 12th July. “When you’re buying it at a festival, from a stranger, you really don’t know what you’re getting”. The results were stunning. “We have seen significant reductions in HIV infections and in overdoses, as well as a substantial increase in new patients seeking drug treatment”. It pulled the liability insurance this week, threatening to scuttle the event.
That decision, however, didn’t go over well with underwriter Wynward Insurance Group.
Police are also among those unhappy about the drug testing kits.
The music is scheduled to start Thursday evening, but Colter said he’s still optimistic another insurance company will come forward to help.
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“The drug kits kind of made them feel uncomfortable and now they have pulled their insurance from us”, Colter said on Tuesday. “Evolve is not cancelled, Evolve is going on”.
