Festival season has been put under the radar following the death of 25-year-old Sylvia Choi at Stereosonic, prompting many media reports about the wide support for pill testing to be introduced in Australia, including from Greens leader Richard Di Natale.

Speaking to New Matilda, Di Natale said Australia had a “back to front” response to drug use - a point supported by 22-year-old Stereosonic attendee Cameron White, who believes current drug regulation at music festivals is ineffective.

“There was about 48, 000 people at Stereosonic this year,” he noted “If people want to take drugs at festivals, let them but provide the right facilities to test these drugs so people can do them in a safe way.”

Many European countries have implemented a pill testing scheme as a harm reduction measure, which has allowed health workers to test illicit substances from users in music festivals. This has prevented many deaths.

During the early hours of the Sydney Stereosonic festival, which took place on Nov. 28, an unconscious young female at the McDonalds in Sydney Olympic Park was taken away by medics, which stunned many festival attendees.

Another young female covered in vomit was seen being carried away by security near the main arena.

When night hit, a young man was seen in the middle of the main arena trying to offer his illicit substances.

In total, 69 people were charged with drug supply and possession, although White believes almost half of the crowd were on some kind of drug.

“The sniffer dogs only catch a small minority of the people willing to take drugs into the venue. [The] security guard’s main concern [is] people who fall ill by drinking too much or becoming too violent. Some security guards were even doing drugs,” he said.

White adds that it was very easy to spot someone under the influence of drugs.

“I could tell. It was very obvious as their facial expressions and body language showed how they felt whilst on the drug. It didn’t bother me.”

First time attendee, 18-year-old Lucy Xu, agreed, saying “Yes I could tell very easily, so it was very obvious. I feel neutral about this. I am against it but I didn’t feel anything much.”

Stereosonic is an annual music festival held across Australia. It was held recently in Sydney and Perth, and will take place in Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane this coming weekend.

The Sydney event encompassed five arenas – Stereo, Sonic, Atlantis, The Woods and Beatport. Featured artists included Major Lazor, Clean Bandit, Diplo and Galantis.

One of the performers was Perth band Slumberjack, who have accomplished a lot in the electronic music scene since forming the band in 2013. The duo’s SoundCloud has over a total of 5 million plays, and their track ‘Horus’ landed number one on Hype Machine, which will be featured in the latest Tom Ford cosmetic campaign.

The duo, consisting of 23-year-old Morgan Then and 21-year-old Fletcher Ehlers are familiar with crowd behaviour during music festivals. They have played at festivals such as BIGSOUND, This That and Splendour in the Grass, but did not observe many attendees who were under the influence of drugs since they were back stage most of the time.

“Stereosonic is the biggest electronic music festival in Australia so it’s just a really huge production, which [brings] a massive crowd,” Ehlers told the International Business Times Australia.

“I think people...are going to make their own decisions and do what they want to do. I don’t think it’s necessarily associated with any particular festival, it’s just a personal choice and for some people, music and drugs happen to go hand in hand. But personally for us, that’s not the case – And for a lot of people. We meet a lot of the fans who have a really good time [without doing drugs].”

White and Xu believe it is inevitable young adults will experiment with drugs during music festivals because of factors such as curiosity and peer pressure.

“The fact that they are young and think that ‘you only get one shot at living so you might as well experience everything’. The carefree environment [plays a part] too,” said Xu.

“Music is enough but many would agree they use certain drugs to enhance how they hear and feel the music,” White added, even though he saw one girl being taken away on a stretcher. “People will continue to take recreational drugs to enjoy themselves and to escape...”

With Field Day to be held on New Year's day at The Domain in Sydney and the Mountain Sounds Festival on the Central Coast in February, it is almost certain that young adults will experiment with recreational drugs such as ecstasy and MDMA during these events.

Twenty one-year-old Lisa Dinh, a volunteer for the Stereosonic art department crew believes event securities will become stricter and more aware due to increasing drug-related deaths.

However, White believes there will never be effective regulation during festivals because of the criminalisation of drugs.

“There are too many people importing drugs and making their own. The authorities will never have full control over the supply of drugs coming into Australia.”

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