Calls for pill testing ahead of major St Kilda music festival

A Port Phillip Councillor has renewed his call for a pill testing trial in Victoria as police and paramedics prepare for a major dance music festival at St Kilda this weekend.

Police say they’ll be out in force as around 18,000 people converge on St Kilda’s Catani Gardens for the fourth annual Listen Out Music Festival.

It comes a week after two people – including a Victorian woman – died and about 750 people sought medical assistance at a dance music festival in Sydney.

Port Phillip Council deputy mayor Phillip Gross says the current strategies – including sniffer dogs and a highly-visible police presence, won’t work.

Last year a motion passed by Port Phillip Council for Victoria to hold a pill testing trial was rejected by the state government.