The value of drugs seized by the Police at the two best known Isle of Wight festivals is by far the largest across the rest of the UK festivals an FoI investigation by the Request Initiative has unveiled.
A report in The Guardian today reveals that in 2010, the Bestival (£78,802.10) and Isle of Wight Festival (£44,517.92) combined to have by far the largest amount of drugs seized (£123,320.02), totalling nearly double as much as the whole of the rest of the UK festival seizures (£66,599.37).
Bestival 2009: £123,618 of drugs seized
2009 was a completely phenomenal year for Bestival which alone was responsible for £123,618 worth of drugs being seized. This nearly equalled the value of drugs seized at all of the rest of the UK festivals (£164,801.92) – pretty amazing when you learn that £71,183.70 of that came from the Isle of Wight Festival.
IW Fest + Bestival: More than double the rest of the UK
The Island festivals combined had more than double the amount of drugs seized than the rest of the UK combined £194,801.70 versus £93,618.22 in 2009.
In 2008 Bestival was ranked highest in the UK (£60,465.35) and the Isle of Wight Festival third. The drugs seized at the two Island festivals combined to be greater than the rest of the UK festivals combined (£110,595.55 vs £102,488.28).
Bestival top in three out of four years
In all four of the years where the figures are available, Bestival tops the charts, with the exception of last year (2011) where the amount seized plummeted to less than a quarter of the previous year (£78,802.10 to £18,478.82).
Nearly £1/2 million over four years at Island festivals
The total amount of illegal drugs the Police removed from festival-goers at Bestival over the four years totalled £281,364.27, topping the charts, with Isle of Wight Festival in third overall place with £193,241.82 around £7,000 less than Glastonbury (£200,574.73).
Over these four years, nearly half a million pounds worth of drugs (£474,606.09) has been seized at both Island festivals.
Report by The Guardian based on data collected by the Request Initiative. Thanks to Steve for pointing it out
Drug seizure data of UK festivals 2008-2011
| Festival | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
| Bestival | £60,465.35 | £123,618.00 | £78,802.10 | £18,478.82 |
| Download | £183.00 | £1,308.80 | £955.00 | £1,061.80 |
| Glastonbury | £57,058.51 | £58,668.54 | £39,979.03 | £44,868.65 |
| Isle Of Wight | £50,130.20 | £71,183.70 | £44,517.92 | £27,410.00 |
| Leeds | £637.00 | £1,624.00 | £274.00 | £797.00 |
| Reading | £22,337.52 | £15,271.25 | £11,394.44 | £804.79 |
| Sonisphere | £0.00 | £1,885.00 | £11,334.40 | £413.00 |
| V Festival | £21,243.77 | £14,088.83 | £2,464.00 | £7,111.12 |
| Wireless | £711.20 | £226.00 | £14.50 | £585.50 |
| Womad | £317.28 | £545.80 | £184.00 | £151.40 |
Image: valeriebb under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license
