"As organiser of the Splashy Fen Music Festivals I would like to point out some serious discrepancies in the report which appeared in the Daily News and its sister papers on March 28, 2005."

Ferraz believes that a regrettably distorted perspective was given to the facts, and has suggested that the Daily News is guilty of sensationalising its headlines.

Which is rather charitable of him, since it now appears that the damaging headline was nothing more than a figment of somebody’s imagination.

An investigation reveals that at no time during the festival was the medical tent required to treat four girls, teenage or otherwise, in an overdosed condition whose lives were in danger. According to Dominic and Hazel Maggott who were in charge of the medical tent, every person who visited the medics was treated on site and discharged, without referral to hospital.

While Singh supposedly obtained his facts from Superintendant Andre Laatz, the same officer has denied making any such statement whatsoever about four teenaged girls or anyone else being in mortal danger.

In actual fact, a total of four arrests were made at the festival during the entire four-day Easter weekend - two for dealing in dagga, one for selling the chocolate coated magic mushroom and one for possession of ecstasy.

Of the 8,000+ people who attended this year’s Splashy Fen festival, four people  -  0.05%  -  were arrested for drug dealing / possession. Kinda pales in comparison to the rampant and blatant drug use and abuse seen at raves, clubs and other venues and events.

Ferraz’s response to the Splashy arrests is: "I am extremely pleased to see that the police are doing an effective job in helping us curb any incidents of drug abuse. We have a proven record of doing our utmost to preserve and nurture Splashy Fen’s unique ambience as a safe and healthy environment for families and young children. Splashy Fen is a classic example of being able to get high on spectacular surroundings and nice people, without resorting to the mind-altering stuff."

What a pity Singh didn’t bother to verify his information, or even touch base with his colleague at the festival, Sally Scott, who, with very little effort and a couple of phone calls to the right people, managed to confirm that Singh’s information was way off base.

But the damage had been done  -  the festival's reputation tarnished  -  by a careless reporter.

courtesy of Sharon Gills website >>