PERCEPTIONS REGARDING DRUG-RELATED INTERVENTIONS AT MUSIC FESTIVALS IN BELGIUM
Various drug-related strategies are being implemented at festivals to reduce drug use or the risks as-sociated with it, including prevention, harm reduction, healthcare, and law enforcement. The effective-ness of some of these strategies has not been consistently demonstrated, whereas others remain un-explored in terms of their impact. As a result, following research question was formulated: “How do festival attendees and stakeholders perceive the impact of drug-related interventions implemented at music festivals?” A mixed-method approach was adopted to address this question, combining quan-titative data collection through experience sampling method with qualitative insights gathered from semi-structured interviews. A total of 320 festival attendees and 44 festival stakeholders participated in this study. Results show, on the one hand, that none of the strategies was perceived as being able to influence the frequency of drug use. On the other hand, while harm reduction interventions were perceived as likely to reduce risky drug use behaviors, repressive interventions were perceived as likely to increase the occurrence of such behaviors. Based on these and other results, conclusions and recom-mendations were drawn.