Getting drugs into festivals (avoiding security, sniffer dogs etc)

[Gromit]

The one girl who told me it was bit ordinary festival goerie blamed herself to some extent. By posting photos on social network about how awesome it is has attracted ordinary folk was her theory. Ordinary word of mouth goes to the right people. You don't tell people you don't like for fear they'll turn up. Social networking goes to everyone and anyone.

The hippiest moment for me was when i decided i had enough yoga after only about 15 minutes (yeah i know lightweight) and went back in the sauna (expecting it to be empty). The were three girls in there doing some kind of vocal meditation thing.

The first girl was making a kind of humming noise.
The second girl was singing some sweet melodic chant over and over which i could have happily zoned out to and meditated along to.
That wasn't an option though because the third girl was making high pitched eeking noises like a dolphin.

The third girl kinda drove me back out of the sauna, hmm maybe that was her plan

 

[TheInsider]

The conversation I had last night revolved around this - and that it was in the security/staff campsite. I was told it was "sketchy as fuck" - "can't believe I got out of that alive" - "not a lot scares me - but fuck that" - "no teamwork or people having your back" - "tried to cover it up so nobody was aware this had happened and made the rest of us in danger" - "in a sketchy tent - on my own with no radio or backup" - "people pretending to be security and cutting off bands and raiding tents" - "can cope with sketchy, but this is beyond that - it's almost organised" - "please come up here and work - it's ridiculous". And this is someone I have worked with at festivals that I KNOW is more than capable of handling herself and situations and attend as a punter as well as works.

 

[Gromit]

God, that's terrible.

The allegedly and the bit about drugs makes me wonder how seriously they are taking her claim. There was a lot of acid and shrooms about. Do they think she had a bad trip?

Or do they think she was roofied and they are warning about that?

Or are they just taking the opportunity of warning about getting high when there is a rapist about?

One hopes its the last but i think the article could have been written better for the sake of the poor girl. They've immediately created ambiguity against her story.

I never saw any posters anywhere but plenty of festival goers were talking about it so the word was being spread.

 

[TheInsider]

It is being taken seriously. The rest of the wording is for legal purposes. I was told there were no drugs involved in this one but there were other assaults that did involve drugs - generally ket being given to newbies who thought it was coke. They think it's "safer" to sniff than to pop a pill apparently....

 

[Gromit]

The conversation I had last night revolved around this - and that it was in the security/staff campsite. I was told it was "sketchy as fuck" - "can't believe I got out of that alive" - "not a lot scares me - but fuck that" - "no teamwork or people having your back" - "tried to cover it up so nobody was aware this had happened and made the rest of us in danger" - "in a sketchy tent - on my own with no radio or backup" - "people pretending to be security and cutting off bands and raiding tents" - "can cope with sketchy, but this is beyond that - it's almost organised" - "please come up here and work - it's ridiculous". And this is someone I have worked with at festivals that I KNOW is more than capable of handling herself and situations and attend as a punter as well as works.

I think tent raiders seemed to be targeting girls.

6 girls in 3 tents next to us. They said they had a bumbag stolen. Crew campsiite mind.
Another girl told me that her money, drugs and her towel were stolen from her tent whilst she was asleep in it and the money was right up by her head.
Another girl we helped home on the monday had her entire tent and everything that was in it stolen that morning.


I always feel a bit of a prick giving them security advce after the horse has bolted kinda thing but for anyone else thinking of going to festivals:

1. Small backpack - Take everything valuable with you when you leave the tent. Bags can get stolen and lost whilst out and about. small backpack is attached to you so less likely.
2. When in the tent sleeping. Money and valuables at the bottom of your sleeping bag with you in it. Try steeling that without waking someone.

 

[Gromit]

- generally ket being given to newbies who thought it was coke. They think it's "safer" to sniff than to pop a pill apparently....

Yeah i heard about that too. In fact being sold as coke when it was ket.

 

[TheInsider]

I think tent raiders seemed to be targeting girls.

6 girls in 3 tents next to us. They said they had a bumbag stolen. Crew campsiite mind.
Another girl told me that her money, drugs and her towel were stolen from her tent whilst she was asleep in it and the money was right up by her head.
Another girl we helped home on the monday had her entire tent and everything that was in it stolen that morning.


I always feel a bit of a prick giving them security advce after the horse has bolted kinda thing but for anyone else thinking of going to festivals:

1. Small backpack - Take everything valuable with you when you leave the tent. Bags can get stolen and lost whilst out and about. small backpack is attached to you so less likely.
2. When in the tent sleeping. Money and valuables at the bottom of your sleeping bag with you in it. Try steeling that without waking someone.

We jusy say keep it on you - and if threatened, hand it over. Divide it up. NOT EVER IN YOUR SLEEPING BAG - if they want it, they will get it - and turfing you out of a bag is not a deterrent for them. I've seen them come round the back with a blade, cut the tent near their heads and feel inside pillows....to be fair, the guy didn't know what hit him when I took swift and decisive action...

But yes - carry it. Some in your socks, some in your trainers. Girls - in your bra. And be aware. Sadly, you add booze and pills and the awareness goes - and then personal safety goes. The good old days of fellow festies looking out for you are gone.

 

[Looby]

I don't agree about the backpack advice. It's really easy to open it and take stuff out without the person noticing, especially in a crowd.

 

[TheInsider]

Use a bumbag pulled round the front with the buckle pulled round the front as well. It might still get slipped off but try to keep a hand on it. No guaranteed safe option. Just be aware and be safe. Keep trying to tell people this - and then we get these disasters coming up. Even if she WAS drugged, even if she WAS unaware - it's not right. There are no mitigating circumstances for an attack like this. Imagine it was your daughter or friend in that tent. I was told that she was screaming for a fair few minutes before they located the tent. Bloody awful state of affairs.

 

[Gromit]

I don't agree about the backpack advice. It's really easy to open it and take stuff out without the person noticing, especially in a crowd.

I'm usually carryng waterproofs and a hoodie in case the weather changes. Wallet is zipped up in the jacket, everything else is at the bottom and past all that.

I'm not saying its impossible to get my stuff but when i'm with friends (who might spot someone) and i'm dancing (constantly moving) I personally think its harder than picking a pocket or a bum bag. Just because of the amount of crap i carry along with the anything they might want.

Tents are soft targets. A backpack with people around is not so soft. It takes a desperate person to go for the moving target with so many soft targets on offer.

Oh and just cause its called a backpack doesn't mean you have to wear it on your back. I've seen people wear them back to front so that the pack is on their front.

 

[Gromit]

Use a bumbag pulled round the front with the buckle pulled round the front as well. It might still get slipped off but try to keep a hand on it. No guaranteed safe option. Just be aware and be safe. Keep trying to tell people this - and then we get these disasters coming up. Even if she WAS drugged, even if she WAS unaware - it's not right. There are no mitigating circumstances for an attack like this. Imagine it was your daughter or friend in that tent. I was told that she was screaming for a fair few minutes before they located the tent. Bloody awful state of affairs.

They meaning securty?

Did no one in nearby tents respond?

 

[TheInsider]

They meaning securty?

Did no one in nearby tents respond?

Security went to the site - it was staff/security anyway but in the staff area. And no, nobody came out to help her. Which is pretty common these days. Following a scream around a dark site is almost impossible. But this is what happens these days - nobody steps up to help someone else - when we train students in self defence we teach them to shout "fire" - because you get a better response than shouting "help" or "rape". Sad.

 

[Looby]

I'm usually carryng waterproofs and a hoodie in case the weather changes. Wallet is zipped up in the jacket, everything else is at the bottom and past all that.

I'm not saying its impossible to get my stuff but when i'm with friends (who might spot someone) and i'm dancing (constantly moving) I personally think its harder than picking a pocket or a bum bag. Just because of the amount of crap i carry along with the anything they might want.

Tents are soft targets. A backpack with people around is not so soft. It takes a desperate person to go for the moving target with so many soft targets on offer.

Oh and just cause its called a backpack doesn't mean you have to wear it on your back. I've seen people wear them back to front so that the pack is on their front.

I'm not saying leave stuff in tents, just that a backpack isn't the best type of bag IME. I use a cross body bag with internal zipped pockets for money/phone. I'm certainly not walking around with a rucksack on my front.

I had someone unzip my rucksack in Victoria Station. I'd have had no idea if someone els hadn't noticed

 

[Gromit]

I'm not saying leave stuff in tents, just that a backpack isn't the best type of bag IME. I use a cross body bag with internal zipped pockets for money/phone. I'm certainly not walking around with a rucksack on my front.

I had someone unzip my rucksack in Victoria Station. I'd have had no idea if someone els hadn't noticed

Yeah well as a woman you have more options. I still think a pack is better than a plain hand bag as people do snatch and grabs on them and off into the crowds they go.

 

[Looby]

Yeah well as a woman you have more options. I still think a pack is better than a plain hand bag as people do snatch and grabs on them and off into the crowds they go.

 

[Gromit]

No
No
Maybe

The last one can be passed off as something you got for an archeological dig in egypt last year or summat :O)

 

[sim667]

It's a job. They go with the sole intent of selling on. Buy a pack of canisters. Sell them at £5 a balloon to the captive market. One canister does three balloons. Rinse and repeat. We are talking organised groups - we pick them up coming out from London and surrounding areas in multiple vehicles. It's very organised and a superb business model. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chargers-Highest-Quality-Liss-Canisters/dp/B006GMFEA2 - £30 for 100 canisters. That's 300 balloons at £5 each (and we know they were charging and getting that because it's easier to move notes than cash - they never carry cash) - £1500 from a pack. Excellent return on investment. Talk to clean up crews about "not much use" - tent areas were smothered. Remember that these guys are not there to dance - they are there to make money. This is why they hand off the takings - less than £1K keeps them away from the proceeds of crime act.

Heard some horror stories from friends working there. General feeling of being unsafe, and that was from security staff. It would appear that some stories are coming out now - attacks and at least one rape, the rest looking like sexual assaults. Very messy.

You've got some of that wrong. 1 cannister = 1 balloon

I've done enough whipping in my time to know this is a certain.....

 

[TheInsider]

NOS dealer bags...carry that and a rucksack you'll end up being followed. Since when did men start carrying handbags for God's sake?! Wallet, product, phone... we used to just rock up to festivals, get smelly and sweaty and call it an experience. Now the blokes spend all the time in front of mirrors looking pretty... the Ramones would be turning in their collective graves....

 

[TheInsider]

You've got some of that wrong. 1 cannister = 1 balloon

I've done enough whipping in my time to know this is a certain.....

Not the ones we were seeing this time. Balloons are getting smaller and they use smaller controllable crackers now rather than the bloody great creamers. We were "practicing" in the compound and managed to get three balloons loaded quite well, but they are smaller ones... If you want to fill a space hopper with NOS, then it's more of a challenge.

 

[sim667]

Not the ones we were seeing this time. Balloons are getting smaller and they use smaller controllable crackers now rather than the bloody great creamers. We were "practicing" in the compound and managed to get three balloons loaded quite well, but they are smaller ones... If you want to fill a space hopper with NOS, then it's more of a challenge.

No, a normal balloon holds one charger......

The small crackers there is no control, once the seal pops the charger contents empty.

The big crackers there's an amount of control, but with a third of a charger the hit you get from doing it would be pointless, if anything you'd get dizzy from the asphyxiation, not from the gas.

If someone offered me a third of a ballon for a fiver I'd tell them to go fuck themself. 1 charger = 1 balloon. 2-3 each, 3 for a fiver.... Standard.

 

[sim667]

You maybe getting confused with the smaller ones as they are prone to leakages

 

[TheInsider]

We were getting them with no change on them - captive audience, no knowledge. They prices they pay are silly. They are not just using the NOS now though - we are finding them playing mix n match. Line first, joint, NOS, inhale/exhale/inhale/exhale/inhale/exhale/inhale and hold...innovation and experimentation just as Tim Leary envisaged. Madness and it's putting them on the floor with CO2 poisoning technically but then the rest kicks in and away they go. Even finding amyl again - and I thought we had seen the back of that!

 

[sim667]

We were getting them with no change on them - captive audience, no knowledge. They prices they pay are silly. They are not just using the NOS now though - we are finding them playing mix n match. Line first, joint, NOS, inhale/exhale/inhale/exhale/inhale/exhale/inhale and hold...innovation and experimentation just as Tim Leary envisaged. Madness and it's putting them on the floor with CO2 poisoning technically but then the rest kicks in and away they go. Even finding amyl again - and I thought we had seen the back of that!

The prices they're paying are silly because at SGP a vast majority of people going have got more money than sense..... Or have managed to blag a free ticket via a friend/fashion blog etc.... The price people will pay for stuff at sgp hasn't tended to be particularly representative of what people pay at other festivals....

I remember watching people bowl into festivals with medical bottles of nos

The point is £5 for a third of a balloon is not a "standard"

And shock at mixing and matching in that way does show a real naivety about people who like getting out of their face

 

[TheInsider]

Not shock - just bemused observations when their friends wander off to leave them to it whilst they end up incapable or worse. If they looked after each other properly, there may be less problems. Christ - 30 years in this game and a little NOS/CO2 poisoning is hardly likely to shock! It was funny when the travellers turned up with the bottles on sack trollies and the lines formed. After Symmetry there was a lovely guy, ended up being sectioned because he took everything he could and his mates ran and left him behind. Family festival and this guy was naked, crawling around in circles, throwing the welfare staff and medics away. Even better when they found out he had done it before at another festival and they didn't think to look after him. 21 years old. Sad.

 

[editor]

Ooh, I like that bag! £30 on eBay...

(apols for fashion detour)

 

[TheInsider]

Manbags. Just say no.

Or in Luton, they are called "Gatbags" and don't hold deodorant or product.....

 

[Gromit]

Ooh, I like that bag! £30 on eBay...

(apols for fashion detour)

£32 for the XL.

Look closer though and those straps aren't as secure as you think. There is a popper to pull the strap away from the bag and the buckle is for show.

It is on the face off it the best looking man bag i've ever seen... but its still a man bag my male pride says to over ride the slight 'want' urge i have.

How many times do you want to have to correct people "Er vintage army messenger bag I think you find" before it gets tiring?

 

[editor]

£32 for the XL.

Look closer though and those straps aren't as secure as you think. There is a popper to pull the strap away from the bag and the buckle is for show.

It is on the face off it the best looking man bag i've ever seen... but its still a man bag my male pride says to over ride the slight 'want' urge i have.

I have to lug about cameras and lenses every bloody place I go at a festival, so I need a bag of some description, manbag or not.

 

[edwinchester]

2. When in the tent sleeping. Money and valuables at the bottom of your sleeping bag with you in it. Try steeling that without waking someone.

Not all that hard apparently. I've known people have money stolen from the pockets of the jeans they were still wearing inside their sleeping bags. The only way to be sure of not having stuff nicked from your tent is not to have it in your tent - does SGP do lockers?

 

[Gromit]

I have to lug about cameras and lenses every bloody place I go at a festival, so I need a bag of some description, manbag or not.

This one is discrete.