The seventh annual Maitreya Music and Arts Festival reached its conclusion over the Labour Day long weekend, and with over 2,500 people in attendance it was considered a success after festival organisers relocated the event from its regular home in Victoria’s Goldfields at the 11th hour when local council of the Central Goldfields Shire denied the event a permit.
The move caused some controversy, with council attempting to block the event for a number of years as it had been running without the sanctions of the shire for three years. Now ABC News reports that the event has come under criticism by local police who say there were not enough ambulance and medical staff on hand a the three-day event.
Held at Green Lake, near the Malee town of Sea Lake, police report that Maitreya Festival’s ambulance staff were ‘mostly absent’. “We’ve had concerns that there were no ambulance [crews] on site and there was a delay in having to get them there,” said Inspector Jamie Templeton, who added that though there were no assaults and a few minor cases of drug overdoses, there were concerns about absent paramedics.
The Buloke Shire, who granted permits for this year’s event only days beforehand, insist that ambulance staff were at the event, while Ambulance Victoria state that two paramedics covered the event from Sunday night, the second evening of the event.“We’ve had concerns that there were no ambulance [crews] on site and there was a delay in having to get them there.” – Inspector Jamie Templeton
There is speculation that the lack of ambulance staff was due to the event’s swift upheaval to its new location at Green Lake, with Buloke Shire happy to accept the music and arts event after a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruling blocked the festival being held at the Carisbrook Racecourse and Recreation Reserve; Maitreya’s home for the last two years.
Similarly, another bush-bound dance music festival ran into problems over its medical services earlier in the year when it ran into trouble with local council.
The Rainbow Serpent festival struggled to secure a permit with local council, and though tabled meetings between organisers Green Ant Productions and the Pyrenees Shire Council eventually saw the 2013 edition go ahead, the council initially had issues with the revisions to the event’s emergency and medical services in light of the death of 34-year-old Daniel Buccianti of a drug-related overdose at Rainbow Serpent 2012.
Police are concerned that Maitreya 2013 ran ahead without the necessary medical and emergency services, and had there been a fatal accident similar to Rainbow Serpent’s the consequences could have been extremely dire.
The news also arrives after a coroner’s inquest into the death of a teenager from a drug overdose at Perth’s 2009 Big Day Out was officially ruled as accidental. The coroner’s inquest also praised the improvements made to the one-day festival’s medical services and facilities over the last few years, even calling for the Western Australian Health Department to implore over festival events to meet the high standards set by the Big Day Out, pushing for labelling all music events to high-risk status, which makes the presence of qualified medical staff, doctors, and assistants mandatory.
Despite Police’s criticisms and concerns with Maitreya’s dubious medical facilities, the nearby Sea Lake community embraced the festival as revellers headed to the Green Lake event poured thousands of dollars into the local economy. “It’s been brilliant’ Reed Trembrath of the local cafe told The Guardian. “We’ve extended our trade and have worked an extra 50 ours over the last week leading up to the festival.”
Andrea Hannig, manager of the local Sea Lake Foodworks supermarket also benefited from the heavy spending of festival-goers. “For us it was absolutely huge… I would hate to see anyone grumble, this means a lot for us,” she said, noting that they also extended their opening hours to cater to Maitreya attendees stocking up for the event.
