Hammerdown Festival: Worthing rock and metal music festival introduces anti-spiking methods to ensure guests' safety

Hammerdown Festival director Harry White is introducing anti-spiking drink covers (known as StopTopps) to the event, which takes place this weekend (29 – 30 July).

Harry was spiked at a friend’s party at 17 and described the experience as ‘extremely disorientating’.

He said: “I had only had one drink that night, so I knew I wasn’t drunk and something wasn’t right.

"I couldn’t stop my head from spinning and was extremely disorientated and confused. When it happened, I was really lucky to be surrounded by people who cared about me and made sure I was alright, we didn’t know what had happened and I didn’t speak about it much at the time, but I now know I was spiked, and the experience has stuck with me.”.

The event, which was established in 2015, sees up-and-coming and established performers take to the stage at The Factory Live. Since setting the event up, Harry and his team said their guests’ safety has been critical.

Harry added: “Of course our first port of call is to have excellent security and bag checks so we don’t have anything or any people in the venue that shouldn’t be, but we also must be realistic and I’m glad we can provide this sort of protection for our guests.

"Ultimately, we want everyone to have the best time, I wouldn’t want spiking to happen on my watch so we’ll do what we can to prevent it.”

Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne, who has funded the anti-spiking covers, said: “We are lucky to have a wealth of arts, music and cultural events all year round in Sussex and I want people to enjoy what our fantastic county has to offer whilst also keeping safe.

“Spiking is no joke - it’s dangerous and it’s an offence.

"It can make someone extremely unwell and vulnerable and the effects of it can be dangerous. I’m delighted that Hammerdown Festival and Harry are putting the safety of their guests first and will have additional safety measures such as our StopTopps in place for those who want to use them.”