Police Seizures of Drugs at UK Music Festivals

Quantities of drugs seized at music festivals across the UK have declined significantly over the last three years, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act which provide a unique insight into changing patterns of drug use at British music festivals.

Source: Guardian (2)

The data, which covers festivals taking place over four years - from 2008 to 2011 - shows drug confiscations peaking in 2009 but falling away rapidly in the years since. 

Between 2009 and 2011 seizures of cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy all fell by over 65% and the total for all substances dropped by a similar margin - from £288,420 to £101682.

On the Isle of Wight it’s been largely about cocaine and ecstasy, at Glastonbury the hauls of ketamine have been creeping up, while the drug of choice for heavy metal fans would seem to be Jack Daniels and other booze.

As a tens of thousands of young (and not so young) music fans await another festival season, new figures based on police activities at 10 major festivals over the past four years provide an insight into the range and scale of drugs seized.

They show that seizures of popular drugs such as cannabis and ecastasy have been in decline, possibly due factors such as changing behaviour, demographics and policing priorities.

Cocaine seizures have been in sharp decline since the onset of the economic hard times, and there is some evidence to back up suggestions that recreational drug users have been turning to relatively cheaper drugs like ketamine, the horse tranquilliser dubbed the ‘new ecstasy’.

 Individual events also meanwhile display particular characteristics when it comes to the type of drugs seized.

The lion’s share of cocaine seizures last year took place at the Isle of Wight festival and the island’s other big musical event, Bestival, where 50,000 people enjoyed an eclectic mix of rock, folk and dance.

The two festivals also stood out from the others in terms of ecstasy seizures, accounting for nearly half of the value of all drugs seized at Bestival last year.

By contrast, drug seizures were almost non-existant at the Womad (World of Music, Arts and Dance), often regarded as the festival of choice for a stereotypically Guardian-reading, older music fan. Last year, the only drugs confiscated in swoops by Wiltshire Police was cannabis with a street value of £151.

Expectations that rock fans meanwhile might be prone to emulating some of their harder living idols are also somewhat confounded. Seizures were comparatively low at the two festivals catering for them - the Download festival in Leicestershire and Sonisphere at Knebworth House, Hertfordshire.

At Sonisphere, where 190,000 fans last year moshed along to bands including Motorhead and Slipknot, just over £400 of drugs was seized across the weekend. It was mostly cannabis, with cocaine making up the balance. Ecstasy and amphetamines were absent.

At the country’s best known gathering of music lovers, where Glastonbury organisor Michael Eavis last year said that the drug culture “had changed beyond belief” and that it was “a cheek to even suggest there’s a problem”, more than £200,000 worth of drugs has been seized by police over the past four years.

Last year’s haul of more than £44,000 was a rise of 12% on the previous year although, like other festivals where larger quanties of drugs have been confiscated, seizures are considerably down on 2009’s relative high.

Across all 10 festivals - Glastonbury, V, the Isle of Wight, Bestival, Download, Sonisphere, Leeds, Reading, Womad and Wireless- there has been a sharp decline since that year in the value both of cocaine and cannabis seized, according to the figures obtained through a series of Freedom of Information requests by Request Initiative, a nonprofit that makes requests for charities and NGOs.

The graphic below shows total street values of drugs seized in 2011, with figures broken down by substance and festival

Peppermint says; Good work Police! You don’t need drugs to have a good time at a festival, they have no place. Just come and visit one of our bars!

(Source: peppermintbars.co.uk)

Job Opportunity this Summer

Peppermint are looking for you to film and edit promotional videos showcasing Peppermint’s Bar & Event management at various UK Festivals and sporting events this summer. There’s loads in it for you including a generous payment, bags of experience and free festival tickets too. If you know someone who might like this opportunity please let them know. To view the job spec, click here: http://db.tt/ACdzSjso

Headbands to Hunter Boots - 2012’s top festival fashion trends

Are you going to a festival this year? I bet you are. Have you thought about what you’re going to wear? Ah. Before you start panic-buying Hunter wellies and spending ridiculous amounts of money on over-priced band t-shirts, have a read of this.

Some of you may remember our festival fashion trends article from last year. This was one of our most read pieces ever - we’re back with 2012’s installment of what exactly you should be wearing at the festivals this summer!

The well-known faces on the festival scene, such as Alexa Chung, probably don’t have all their clothes for the weekend scrunched up in a back pack along with baby wipes and crisps. They step out looking fresh, crease-free and usually pretty fashionable in their expensive-but-casual ensemble which unfortunately for us normal folk, can be difficult to emulate. We can but try!

Firstly, the essentials. It’s going to rain, it’s a British weather habit that we are used to, but still complain about, and therefore wellies are top of the festival fashion list. Hunter wellies are good quality, come in a range of fun colours and are in the not-so-fun price range of £45-80 on their official website Check eBay for some bargains though. They’ll keep your feet dry and you can even wedge pocket money and a mobile phone inside them. If you don’t want to necessarily pay for the Hunter name, then places like Tesco and Asda sell wellies in a variety of patterns and colours and does the same job of preventing trench foot. 

A recent fashion phenomenon is the playsuit; it encapsulates your torso allowing your limbs to be free and gives them a rare chance to get a sun tan. H&M have got new stock of playsuits for the summer season that are a bargain at only £12.99. It’s essentially a whole outfit, which can be worn with a big cardigan or denim jacket for the cool evenings around a campfire, or dressed up with lots of accessories, such as copious amounts of bracelets or a weird and wonderful headband. Did you know that headbands now do more than keep your hair out of your face? They can be an addition to your outfit, colour co-ordinated, and essential in disguising how much your hair needs a wash after a weekend without a shower. ASOS have got a good range of ‘off the wall’ headgear that should get people talking.

For a less pricey look go for Pret a Portobello’s Elmstone Peacock Feather Crown (£30). A regular fixture at London’s Portobello Market, Elmstone creates beautiful works of art from feathers, lush velvets and vintage appliques and buttons. Make yourself a queen with this crown - which was even featured as one of Vogue’s top festival buys.

Or do you want to channel your inner hippy chick? There’s an array of pretty flowery headbands to help you conjure up that 60s vibe. Accessorize sells a Flower Crown Bando in green with little white and yellow flowers for £6. If that’s not your style, they have 43 other bandos to choose from - none of which will break the bank.

Dry shampoo is all the rage - but, any of the above hats or headbands will help tame locks that haven’t been washed for a few days!

Working our way down the body - scarves are another festival accessory staple. Alexia has scarves made of and with just about anything you could dream of - tie dyes, stripes, fringes, pom poms, jeweled beads, chiffon, silk, sequins, and even zippered pockets! They’re a bit expensive - ranging from £49 to £149, but take a look and you’ll be hooked! (Or head to your favorite high street shop for a more pocket-friendly look alike)

We all love abit of denim. But the tricky weather can mean soaked denim that takes a life time to dry, or traps the sunshine heat in a way that gives a less than pleasurable burning sensation. Never the less, try some denim shorts. Every vintage shop tend to sell the old Levi’s brand of denim shorts; high-waisted ones are great to tuck in a T-shirt and have deep pockets, handy for a mobile phone or

money to save taking a bag around the festival site. Denim shorts could be paired with some patterned tights, try Topshop for some bright and brilliant designs.

For guys, you may prefer less flowery wellies and the usual jeans and T-shirt combination, which is fine. Check out Topman for some fabulous printed sweatshirts that could be layered with a checkered shirt or teamed with some skinny jeans. You’ll look sharp, despite the lack of sleep and the elongated hangover.

Oh, and don’t forget sunglasses! It might surprise everyone and turn out to be a brilliant summer.

By Jennifer Jordan

Dave Grohl and Courtney Love to mark Nirvana’s 20th Anniversary with slot at Reading

By Jennifer Jordan

Dave Grohl and Courtney Love are to bury the hatchet and join each other on stage to mark the 20^th anniversary of Nirvana’s final UK show at Reading Festival at the same event this August. 

Following the death of Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain in 1994, Courtney Love and Dave Grohl had appeared to continue the animosity that had developed against each other during her relationship with Cobain. At least in public. Love had expressed in radio interviews Cobain’s secret ‘hate’ for Grohl as the band’s drummer and revealed that they ‘didn’t get along’. This snowballed into an open tirade of insults between Grohl and Love that ensued for the next 16 years, with Grohl and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic taking Love to court for unpaid royalty cheques from their chart topping record ‘Nevermind’ released in 1991. Most recently in 2011 during a Hole show in Brazil, Love urged the audience to chant ‘Foo Fighters are gay’ before her band continued playing. Grohl has remained the more diplomatic of the two when asked in an interview with magazine FHM how the feud between them was going; he simply replied ‘pretty quiet.’

The rumour of a possible reunion was leaked by a member of the Festival Republic team following the Reading and Leeds Festival line up announcement. ‘When we were negotiating Foo Fighters being our headline act for the festival this year, Dave revealed he’d had lunch with Courtney in New York and went to one of her shows,’ he disclosed last Friday. ‘They had an emotional meeting talking about Kurt and laughed off their digs at each other as being petty and thoughtless. I think things have really turned around.’

Pat Smear who is the lesser known ex-touring guitarist of Nirvana could also perform alongside Grohl and Love however, it is unclear whether Courtney Love will join Foo Fighters on stage during their headline slot on the Sunday or if a secret slot will be arranged on a smaller stage.

New festival aimed directly at twats

“THE Magic Fox Vintage Smoothie Boutique Urban Forest Pop Up Chill Retreat” is to be Britain’s first 100 percent twat-friendly festival.

Source: The Daily Mash.

If Alex James is not there it’s because he’s trapped under one of his own pigs

As the festival-marketing season begins, the organisers of the new event claim to have concocted the ultimate pretentious weekend for utterly dreadful people.

Festival ‘curator’ Tom Logan said: “My friends and I wanted to create something for ourselves - a right bunch of wealthy jumped-up media twats with a ridiculous sense of entitlement and legions of horrible mop-headed children, all of whom are called Mungo.

“We would probably get punched at Latitude. Honestly, we’re that bad.

“Magic Fox Vintage Smoothie Boutique Urban Forest Pop Up Chill Retreat is a combination of all the most annoying, smug, po-faced aspects of festival culture into a smorgasbord of heavily-branded twatness.

“There will be deerstalker hats, depressingly nostalgic 90s dance acts - we’ll probably go with Faithless, who are now old enough to be considered ironic - and some fucking thing called The Mystic Dell.

“We’ve got people with moustaches playing gypsy jazz records on a gramophone while the Wombles perform a burlesque routine, stupid fucking food stalls where you can buy a ‘hand-raised’ pie with an infantile name, and luxury woodland play areas where horrible designer-clad infants can kick frogs while giggling. 

“It will be a hybrid of Waitrose and The Wicker Man.

“Also there will be macaroon biscuits. And people wearing fox masks, just prancing around aimlessly.”

He added: “But the Magic Fox Vintage Smoothie Boutique Urban Forest Pop Up Chill Retreat isn’t just about twats. There’s also plenty for pricks, like a bicycle-power retro puppet eco-show that reworks Punch and Judy as an environmental fable. 

“There will be stalls. We don’t know what they’ll be selling but everything will be a tenner.”

Music fan Emma Bradford said: “I’m going to spend that weekend in West London as it will have become temporarily pleasant.”

(Source: peppermintbars.co.uk)