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Introduction: Harm reduction strategies at music festivals seek to create a safer environment for patrons. The Emerging Drugs Network of Australia–Victoria (EDNAV) project is a state‐wide toxicosurveillance network that derives drug intelligence from a sample of patients presenting to hospital with illicit drug‐related toxicity. This publication describes the preliminary outcomes of conducting toxicosurveillance for critically unwell festival patrons within on‐site medical facilities. Methods: Blood samples were collected from patrons who presented with severe illicit drug‐related toxicity across three festivals (2022/2023). Blood samples were analysed via liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry for over 700 pharmaceutical and illicit drugs. Results: There were 1603 individual medical encounters across the festivals, 228 of which were illicit drug related. A blood sample was collected for 24 patients, with a median age of 22 years (range 18–39 years). A median of two drugs (range 1–5 drugs) were reported and four drugs (range 0–8 drugs) were analytically confirmed per patient. The most frequently reported exposures were congruent with analytical results, 3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine (reported n = 17, detected n = 20), ketamine (reported n = 9, detected n = 13) and cocaine (reported n = 9, detected n = 12). An unreported illicit drug and/or new psychoactive substance (NPS) was detected in 18 patients, including methylamphetamine (n = 10), a cathinone (n = 7), benzodiazepine‐type NPS (n = 6), N‐ethylamphetamine (n = 1), 3‐hydroxyphencyclidine (n = 1) and/or 4‐hydroxy‐N‐methyl‐N‐isopropyltryptamine (n = 1). Discussion and Conclusions: EDNAV toxicosurveillance serves as an additional tool within a multi‐faceted approach to harm reduction at festivals. Continued data collection will allow for the characterisation of high‐risk drug use patterns to provide evidence‐based messaging to festival patrons and key stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the historically informed performance of Wagner's Ring cycle at the Dresden Music Festival, focusing on Die Walküre in 2024. The project involves collaboration between the Dresden Festival Orchestra and Concerto Köln, aiming to perform Wagner's work as he imagined it, using research findings. Pre-concert talks highlighted the importance of clear articulation and historically accurate vocal styles. The performance featured outstanding singers and musicians, with a focus on authentic instrumentation and pitch standards from Wagner's time. [Extracted from the article]

The article from the Wagner Journal explores the vocal requirements for singing Wagnerian roles, emphasizing the importance of more than just volume in Wagnerian singing. It discusses the vocal classifications associated with specific types of voices required for Wagner's roles and highlights the subtlety and emotional depth required in portraying characters like Alberich, Wotan, Siegmund, Siegfried, Sieglinde, and Brünnhilde. The article also delves into the relationship between voice and orchestra in Wagner's music dramas, showcasing how the orchestra complements and enhances the singers' performances. Ultimately, the article suggests that a lyrical approach to Wagnerian singing can be as valid and rewarding as a heroic one, emphasizing the importance of stamina, breath control, legato, diction, acting, and a wide range of vocal colors and dynamics in interpreting Wagner's complex characters. [Extracted from the article]

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In today's fluid culture, fluid economy and fluid tourism, arts festivals fulfil various and sometimes conflicting functions, but surprisingly little scholarly attention has been paid to this issue. The concern of this note is consequently to fill in this void by specifically providing, exploring and critically examining the multifaceted culture of festivalisation in the urban context. In so doing, the current study draws on two case studies namely Mawazine Festival Rhythms of the World (MFRW) and Marrakech International Film Festival (MIFF). Accordingly, while this research note brings into focus how the concept of polysystem is useful for understanding the complex interactions between different cultural systems, it also argues that a polysystemic approach can help shed light on the complex dynamic interactions between systems and subsystems; and identify the various actors and forces that shape the production and reception of cultural events in the urban milieu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug checking services (DCS) allow people who use drugs to submit substances of concern for chemical analysis and then provide results and specialized counselling when needed. DCS intersect risk management, from a public health perspective, with an activist take that provides people who use drugs with agency over their use by helping them detect and avoid unwanted substances. This paper presents data from an exploratory study of people's motivations for using the Boom Festival DCS and the meanings attributed to their interactions with the service. Semi-structured interviews (n = 22; mean age 29 years, range 24–43; 68% cisgender men) were conducted, and an inductive approach was applied informed by Iterative Categorization and reflexive thematic analysis. Participant narratives were organized around three themes: "Drug Checking as a Responsible Practice", "Drug Checking as a Care Practice," and "Drug Checking as a (Mis)trust Practice". Through these themes, the analysis focuses on the concepts of risk and the ideals of responsibility, care and trust among people using the DCS. Our findings expand the current literature that demonstrates the usefulness of DCS as an intervention to mitigate individual risks of drug use by demonstrating the more communitarian potential of this type of intervention as a means to expand the social networks of people who use drugs and support a "culture of care" among partygoers. Our participants relied on friends and trusted suppliers to get information about drugs and make informed decisions. Hence, there is a potential for those involved in drug use and supply to actively participate in harm reduction services, particularly DCS, as a way to disseminate information to a broader audience that does not want or cannot access the service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taiwan's music festival landscape has blossomed, attracting global music enthusiasts with its cultural richness and diverse offerings. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), a survey of festival-goers revealed the intricate relationships among factors like skill performance, self-congruence, ambiance, and consumer interaction, shaping authenticity, satisfaction, destination loyalty, and behavioral intentions. Interestingly, memory was identified as a moderating role, which interlinking satisfaction, behavioral intentions, and destination loyalty. These findings provide both theoretical insights and practical strategies for enhancing festival experiences and cultivating destination loyalty within Taiwan's thriving music scene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to redefine tourism development from a holistic regional perspective? On Costa Brava (Spain), known as a sun and beach destination, alternative strategies are being explored to strengthen territorial resilience through the promotion of existing products, such as music festivals. A mixed methods research based on the qualitative analysis of interviews with key informants and the quantitative analysis of a battery of indicators will provide the necessary information to analyse the potential of these festivals in a context where the dependence towards tourism and the nature of the tourism model itself are being contested. Lessons learnt from last decade might contribute to a more adequate tourism development in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music festivals offer new opportunities for leisure and tourist experiences. The aim of this study is to analyze whether the motivation to persist with music festivals will remain or whether the concept of the music festival should be reinvented. Through a mixed-method approach, this study depicts motivations, perceptions, and behavioral intentions of attending traditional or online festivals with a structural equation model. Content analysis helps to further examine the attitudes of festivalgoers in the new contexts. They feel safe in traditional festivals if screening units and limited access is implemented, but if social pleasure is to be kept, music festivals should turn to online formats that allow interaction among participants. As such it can be concluded that in this new context, traditional music festivals are still a possibility if safety is ensured; nevertheless, online festivals seem to be the most obvious solution at least while the pandemic situation endures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some of Yugoslavia's most radical musical manifestations unfolded during the 1970s and 1980s. Aided by postwar Yugoslav cultural programs, the iconic Student Cultural Center (SKC) in Belgrade - a student-managed "safe space" for free expression and creativity - opened its doors in 1971 and instantly became a magnet for experimental musicians throughout the Western and Eastern Blocs. A group of rebellious composers and performers - Opus 4 and the Ensemble for Different New Music made some of the largest strides in Yugoslav music history and defined a new era of avant-garde and a unique brand of minimalism, influenced by performance and conceptual art, Cage-style experimentalism, Fluxus, and the use of multimedia. This study briefly illustrates their robust vision that connected the East with the West in a fruitful exchange of ideas, despite the geo-political division of the world at the time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, leading music artists have been performing significantly fewer shows, in part due to growing concerns for their wellbeing, but also because of rising energy cost, environmental issues, and industry consolidation. As a result, many cities now host much fewer top 'headliners' artists and bands than before. This study investigates what being effectively 'left off' tours means for cities. Proceeding from industry data, it first quantifies the decline in the number of stops for large tours between 2010 and 2019, and shows that many North American cities increasingly find themselves on the outside looking in. It then provides insights drawn from interviews with city officials on both the negative and positive impacts of this trend. Namely, this study suggests that hosting fewer shows results in economic, cultural and reputational losses, yet also enable cities to grow a stronger local scene, design better policies, and develop distinctive new offerings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Most studies examining the simultaneous use of cannabis with other drugs have focused on cannabis and alcohol, with fewer studies examining simultaneous use of cannabis with other drugs. The United States is currently experiencing an upward trend in psychedelic use and there is an increasing need to characterize cannabis and psychedelic drug interactions to best inform public health recommendations. Materials and Methods A mixed methods field study design was used to survey participants (N = 128) on their lifetime co-use of cannabis with other drugs. Participants who reported lifetime co-use of cannabis and psychedelics (N = 63) were then asked open-ended questions about their most recent simultaneous co-use experience (i.e., how cannabis enhanced their psychedelic experience and whether they experienced any adverse reactions). We conducted a thematic analysis of responses describing how cannabis enhanced the psychedelic experience (N = 54). However, due to low response rate for participants reporting an adverse reaction (N = 7, 11.1%), responses to this question were not analyzed thematically and are instead presented individually. Results Themes included tension reduction and balancing of drug effects (N = 27, 50%), enhancement to psychological processes (N = 11, 20.4%), intensified psychedelic drug effects (N = 12, 22.2%), enhanced psychedelic come-down experience (N = 8, 14.8%), and overall ambiguous enhancement (N = 7, 13%). Among participants reporting an adverse reaction, individual responses included increased anxiety and intensity of the experience, decreased sociability, increased negative affect, sleepiness, disassociation, and confusion. Conclusion Additional research is warranted to better characterize cannabis and psychedelic drug interactions to best inform public health recommendations.

Urban marketing with culture-led urban development has a growing importance for contemporary cities. In a global competition, cities must stand out and attract tourism, investment, and cultural activities. Consequently, their image should be constantly improved. City branding provides strategies for enhancing a city's public image – thus, becoming more and more attractive. Events and festivals, like popular music festivals, offer valuable opportunities for promoting cities and boosting tourism. The aim of this research is to explore the potential of music festivals in building city image and integrating it into the broader branding processes. The results are based on semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey. The findings support the hypothesis that festivals can significantly raise destination awareness, and shape image, and through them, a wider audience can be reached. Festival uniqueness and appropriate venue choices facilitate seamless integration into the host city 's tourism – thus decision-makers should pay attention to this issue and facilitate coordination between stakeholders.

The Noise music scene in Indonesia has grown its popularity in recent years, thanks to the movie Bising: Noise and Experimental Music in Indonesia (2014) about people who do Noise in Indonesia, Senyawa who plays everywhere, and the Jogja Noise Bombing Festival, which draws attention from Noise musicians and fans around the world who come to attend the annual festival. It is already acknowledged not only abroad, where it first gained its popularity, but also by several national media and music festivals who feature some Noise musicians in their programmes. From an unknown yet obscure genre, Noise music has been part of the independent music ecosystem in Indonesia. Nowadays, the Noise scenes in Indonesia are not limited to Java island, but include other islands such as Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali, Sumatra, Batam, and spaces in between. Studying the connections between the Noise activists in these islands through their network of touring, releasing an album together, or simply via Whatsapp group chat is interesting. This article aims at exploring the connections between Noise scenes in Indonesia. After studying the network directly through direct involvement and conducting interviews with some key figures in the scenes, we found some interesting facts such as the historical origin of its performers as well as infrastructures of the scenes (including but not limited to records labels, venues, communities, instrument builders, and festivals). The motivation of these Noise artists for networking and their desire to connect on a broader scale has helped the Noise scenes to achieve recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nicolò Palazzetti's book, "Béla Bartók in Italy: The Politics of Myth-Making," explores the composer's relationship with Italy and the formation of his myth in the context of Italian politics. The book challenges the perception of Bartók as an anti-fascist, arguing that his reputation as such is a myth of our age. Palazzetti examines Bartók's visits to Italy, his reception by Italian composers, and the influence of his music in the country. The book provides a comprehensive analysis of Bartók's impact on Italian music and culture, shedding light on the complex relationship between art and politics. [Extracted from the article]