At Tone Deaf, we’ve seen people go to some pretty extreme lengths to secure music festival tickets. In fact, some of us here in the Tone Deaf office have gone to pretty extreme lengths to secure festival tickets.
However, 24-year-old Lance William Shiels went beyond the pale. As the Associated Press reports, Shiels was caught smuggling 53 pills into a Sydney music festival last year will now serve a minimum seven months in jail.
According to Shiels himself, he stuffed the drugs into his underpants to share with 10 of his school mates during that year’s Stereosonic festival in exchange for a free ticket to the show and a few of the tablets.
Despite his pleas that he was merely carrying the pills for his friends, presiding Judge Andrew Scotting rejected the defence and made it clear that he was making a move to combat drug culture and Australian music festivals.
“The supply of drugs to young people at music festivals must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. It is hard to assess the true involvement of the offender,” Judge Scotting said.
The judge reportedly found Shiels’ claim that he was carrying the drugs for friends in return for a Stereo ticket “self-serving and uncorroborated” before sentencing him to a maximum 18 months in jail.
According to the Associated Press, the court heard that Shiels is remorseful and “has a good chance of being rehabilitated”. Shiels reportedly became distressed when the sentence was handed down, apologising to his father and a female supporter.
As Festival Sherpa notes, the case comes on the heels of a growing number of drug-related incidents at Australian music festivals and amid calls for a new approach towards drugs at festivals and music spaces.
