By Sadie Murray 

The highly anticipated debut of District X Festival took place last weekend in Kildare, with HSE teams making headway amongst the crowd. 

The festival is the result of a collaboration between popular venues District 8 and Index and is the first of its kind in Ireland. The organisers had a strong emphasis on harm reduction measures, working closely with the HSE to create a safer festival environment.  

There were spaces throughout the festival provided by the HSE for harm reduction outreach teams and ‘back of house’ drug checking as part of their Safer Nightlife Programme.  

The Safer Nightlife programme was launched by the HSE in 2022 in response to the evolving drug landscape in Ireland. This campaign involved the development of tailored resources, media awareness and an outreach drug service to support people at events, including four festivals over the summer of 2024.  

The initiative has been successful in reaching festival goers. Karen O’Grady, from the HSE said, “Based on discussions at events this summer, we feel our message is reaching people, more and more people are reporting that they are aware of trends and are applying harm reduction measures like “start low, go slow.” 

Photo Credits: http://www.drugs.ie/festivals  

This is a key message from the HSE, to start low and go slow, meaning that if someone chooses to take drugs they should start with a small dose and pace themselves.  

When the HSE’s festival campaign first began, there was a fear of Garda interference with the spaces. Karen O’Grady said:, “There is less fear of engaging with us now, people who come to the service see that it is not monitored and feel safe discussing use and surrendering drugs with us. 

“We will continue to create awareness of drug trends and try to engage with more people to build trust,” said O’Grady.  

Surrender bins were provided throughout the festival for people to submit drugs for analysis. The service relies on people surrendering drugs for harm reduction purposes- the more drug samples people provide, the more the HSE will know about what is in circulation. This process helps the HSE to issue alerts and spread awareness around particularly risky substances.  

The ‘back of house’ approach means that the sample is destroyed upon analysis and the person will not be contacted directly with the results. If anything noteworthy is found, this information is broadcast on social media and on screens at events. 

This HSE initiative was introduced following recommendations from the Government Emerging Drug Trends and Drug Checking Working Group, which examined nightlife environments including festivals.  

The review identified these as risk-taking settings that can provide the HSE with more opportunity to engage with groups not typically presenting to traditional addiction services. 

Photo by Sadie Murray 

Karen O’Grady said:, “The overall aim of the programme is to engage with and support festival attendees in a non-judgemental way on the topic of substance use and related health issues that emerge in nightlife spaces. The programme is based on a harm reduction ethos to inform and support people to amend behaviours to help minimise harms caused by substance use.” 

The development of a drug safety culture within festivals is crucial with an increasingly volatile drug market and substance abuse epidemic. 

A recent report from The European Drug Report 2024 found that Ireland had the highest instance of drug deaths in the EU, with more than four times the average number of fatalities. The report showed that Ireland had 322 drug-related deaths in 2020 — 97 deaths per million people, compared to the EU average of 22.5. 

The HSE’s core message is that it is safer not to use at all and that the drug market is currently very volatile. For those who do choose to use, it is advised that they stay up to date with drug trends and alerts on the HSE site and to follow harm reduction messages. 

Photo from HSE’s Drugs.ie campaign