Blog comments

• As a member of the psychedelic community the death of Daniel this year saddened me greatly. I have experienced many positives and negatives in modern life which, like it or not, includes intoxicants both legal and illegal.
  However I am proud with how the community, when aware, cares for those on a "bad trip", both drug induced or that of the psychologically troubled. Many drug addicted youngsters have come into the "scene" and been taught through example or occasionally harsh, but never violent, treatment a better way to gain the experiences they seek or to rebel against whatever it is that drives them so or just to pull their head in and grow up. Often although not always, they learn to moderate or eliminate their consumption and deal with their issues.
  As long as drugs are treated as a criminal not medical issue, events such as Rainbow Serpent Festival need to be maintained. Young adults will not be stopped from experimentation and excess and there needs to be an environment where they can cut loose and where there are elders to look over them and for those whom need it, be shown a better way to be. It is a testament to the continued effort and care that in 15 years of Rainbow, this tragedy has not happened before. Closing or restricting events such as Rainbow will surly lead to more deaths and suffering such as Daniels. By closing access to few the elders in society that will empathise and relate with the young through their own experiences in an environment both are comfortable in only serves to exacerbate our drug problems. Let�s open discussion, work together and make all events safer as knee jerk reactions, ostracism and exclusion will just drive the problem back into the dark.

  Hopefull Tuesday 28 February, 2012 - 1:27 AM

• This just doesnt make sense. theres sonething we are not being told because LSD is totally non toxic in doses that you would see in this environment. a person would need to consume their own body weight of the stuff to have a physical over dose. Its more likely to gave been through mixing stimulants with alcohol or sonething else.

  chris Saturday 4 February, 2012 - 8:38 PM

• Tinka that is a total lie. There has been two deaths ever at rainbow serpent over the 15 years of the festival, one was an asthma attack and the other was this year... The coroner is yet to release the details on this unfortunate horrible incident. So your speculation on people dying every year is totally uncalled for.
  When you look at the population on a country and the population of the festival over a period of fifteen years probability would indicate that this sort of tragedy is unfortunately likely to happen from time to time. Rainbow provides first aid with experienced nurses and paramedics/ fire services/ harm minimization services, to try and help provide the safest environment possible for people. There is free water through out the site, sprinklers above the dancefloors that turn on when its hot, wet down services of all the roads to try and keep dust down, people walking around handing out fruit and safety information. You can do everything possible to try and keep people safe and unfortunately still some people will end up sick, injured or worse. Banning festivals is not the solution, those kind of measures are taking in authoritarian societies and it just pushes these parties underground, creating a lack of regulation, safety procedures and communication between the festival and the emergency services there to protect the people.

  Mandy Thursday 2 February, 2012 - 10:44 AM

• Well Well Well, rainbow has got their name in headlights now... To my knowledge Rainbow has experienced a death every year over the last few years and only now has this sudden death come to light and made it in the media stream...It may not be to organisers fault for the death of this young adult, but please dont try to comment about how drug safe the festival is.. The ambulance isnt there to watch out for people who have heat exhaustion or perhaps trip over a twig... They are there because the organisers are aware that drugs will be present and on site..This poor mother has no one else to blame now because her son isnt here to take the blame.. Do you get this.. What the articles are saying, Daniele called his mother from the festival knowing something was wrong.. That shows how close he was to his mother and how open his communication was with his mother.. Not many people can call their parents and admit they are on a dangerous substance...Now Daniel's mother has exposed her sons tragic death to the media..Its an alert that has to be taken seriously for other parents to be aware of what kind of festivals their children are engaging in these dayz..

  Tinka Wednesday 1 February, 2012 - 9:10 PM

• Obviously this mother is grieving but for goodness sakes- blame your son for being an idiot with drugs, not the authorities. People need to start taking responsibilities for their own actions instead of finding scapegoats all the time...

  LG Tuesday 31 January, 2012 - 11:53 PM

• to "Long time patron", if the company you keep tends to use copious ammounts of drugs then you are more than likely to see just that. if you are unsure about the substance there are plenty of cheap and reliable drug tests on the internet that will tell you what your about to take (or not). also, i would much likely get lost on my way back to my tent than my way back from a night in the city.

  Ev Tuesday 31 January, 2012 - 11:27 PM