Substance Use and Attendance Motives of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) Event Attendees: A Survey Study

Edith Van Dyck; Koen Ponnet; Tina Van Havere; Bert Hauspie; Nicky Dirkx; Jochen Schrooten; Jon Waldron; Meryem Grabski; Tom P Freeman; Helen Valerie Curran; Jan De Neve

doi:10.3390/ijerph20031821

Substance Use and Attendance Motives of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) Event Attendees: A Survey Study

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 19;20(3):1821. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20031821.

Authors

Edith Van Dyck¹, Koen Ponnet², Tina Van Havere³, Bert Hauspie^{2

3}, Nicky Dirkx³, Jochen Schrooten⁴, Jon Waldron⁵, Meryem Grabski⁵, Tom P Freeman^{5

6}, Helen Valerie Curran⁵, Jan De Neve⁷

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music (IPEM), Department of Art History, Musicology and Theatre Studies, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
² Research Group for Media, Innovation and Communication Technologies, Department of Communication Sciences, IMEC-MICT, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
³ Substance Use and Psychosocial Risk Behaviours (SUPR-B), University of Applied Sciences and Arts, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
⁴ VAD, 1030 Brussels, Belgium.
⁵ Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, University College London, London WC1E 7HB, UK.
⁶ Addiction and Mental Health Group (AIM), Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK.
⁷ Department of Data-Analysis, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.

Abstract

EDM event attendees are a high-risk population for substance use and associated adverse effects. The aim of this study was to examine substance use at EDM events, focusing on associations between attendance motives and substance use. Sociodemographic characteristics, event specifics, past-year use, and attendance motives were assessed through an online survey. Participants were 1345 Belgian EDM event attendees (69.44% male, M_age = 22.63, SD_age = 4.03). Ecstasy/MDMA/Molly (52.28%), other synthetic hallucinogens (53.68%), ketamine (42.13%), amphetamines (40.45%), and alkyl nitrites (poppers) (32.76%) were most frequently used at festivals/outdoor parties/raves. In nightclubs, cocaine (32.29%) was shown to be prevalent as well, while other synthetic hallucinogens (15.79%) were less often consumed. At events with a more private character, cannabis (68.88%) and magic mushrooms (66.44%) were most frequently used. Aside from alcohol (47.76%), substance use in pubs/bars was negligible. Overall enjoyment was demonstrated to be the key attendance motive, which was succeeded by those relating to music and socialization. A wide range of motives proved to be more important to users (e.g., dance, exploration, escapism, excitement, alcohol, drugs) than non-users, while some were associated with the use of particular substances. The prevalence of substance use was shown to be dependent on the specifics of the setting. Moreover, the idea of a three-dimensional classification of the most principal motives for music event attendance was supported. Finally, correlations were estimated between attendance motives and substance use as well as specific substances. Results could enable more tailored approaches in prevention and harm reduction efforts as well as event management strategies.

Keywords: EDM; attendance motives; drugs; electronic dance music; motivation; nightlife; substance use.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Child, Preschool
Dancing*
Ethanol
Female
Hallucinogens*
Humans
Illicit Drugs*
Male
Music*
N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine*
Substance-Related Disorders* / epidemiology
Young Adult

Substances

Illicit Drugs
Hallucinogens
N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine
Ethanol

Grants and funding

This research was funded by ALAMA-nightlife, a collaborative project supported by the European Research Area Network on Illicit Drugs (ERANID), and POPHARS (DR/85), a collaborative project supported by BELSPO. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the funding agencies.