We kicked off the 2025 festival season a little differently this year. Time zones away from our home bases—our team traveled to EDC Las Vegas 2025, the largest electronic dance music festival in North America—to bring drug testing kits to one of the events that needs them most.
What Happened at EDC Las Vegas 2025?
The EDC Las Vegas Experience
EDC Las Vegas is an iconic festival that draws hardcore ravers and global festival enthusiasts alike. Held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the venue was transformed into a technicolor dream under this year’s theme, “Kinetic Metropolis.” The experience welcomed hundreds of thousands of attendees and featured over 250 artists across 16 stages.
With massive stage productions, immersive art, carnival rides, and interactive zones, the atmosphere was surreal, electric, overwhelming—and undeniably ripe for drug use. And where there’s drug use, we’ll be there with drug safety!
We didn’t stop at EDC Las Vegas, though.
Beyond the EDC Festival Grounds
The city itself is a well-known hub for partying and drug use, and we weren’t about to let our time in Sin City go to waste.
Beyond the festival grounds, we hit the Vegas Strip, along with pop-ups throughout the city to spread our harm reduction message, while providing drug safety education to anyone who needed it. We took an inclusive, proactive approach—aiming to reach as many people as possible, whether they were attending EDC, or just caught up in the city's nonstop energy.
Because Insomniac continues to block drug testing organizations from having an official presence inside EDC—hiding behind the RAVE Act to protect their insurance policies, rather than prioritize public health—we weren’t allowed a booth on festival grounds.
This stance, while common in the industry, is both cowardly and dangerous. While Narcan was available onsite—which we see as a huge win for harm reduction—this is still a limited approach. Narcan is reactive, not preventative. It works after an overdose has already occurred, whereas drug testing helps prevent overdoses from occurring to begin with.
Since we weren’t allowed inside, we did the next best thing. We set up just outside the Speedway, in the free GA parking lot. Positioned along a funnel of foot traffic from parking, shuttles, and rideshares, we were able to meet attendees where they were and get kits into the hands that needed them most.
But we knew we couldn’t reach everyone from one spot.
Local Partnerships to Expand Test Kit Access
That’s why, from the start of EDC Week, we partnered with two local shops—Top Notch THC and Rock & Vape—to expand access across the city.
Both locations carried our test kits all week long, providing easy and convenient pickup points for anyone who needed them. At Top Notch THC, we even hosted an official booth and ensured test strips, spot kits, and SprayPack were available at all locations.
We’re incredibly grateful to both of these establishments for standing with us, supporting harm reduction, and showing up for their communities in a real way.
Our Top Three Takeaways from EDCLV
We learned a lot from what happened at EDC Las Vegas 2025, and we’re excited to take these lessons with us as we continue to educate and support our community throughout the 2025 festival season and beyond. Here are our big three takeaways:
1. Our Community is Amazing
We already knew this, but we want to take a moment to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who came up and showed support this past week. From the Strip to Fremont Street to the Speedway, you saw our “Drug Test Kits Save Lives” totem, heard us on the megaphone, and showed up to the booth with so much love and support.
We are endlessly grateful. As we told many of you this weekend, this movement exists because of individuals like you—spreading the word, showing up, and supporting us.
2. Misinformation About Narcan is a Growing Concern
One of the most common responses we used to hear was, “I don’t need a test kit, I’m the test kit!”
But more and more, that’s being replaced with, “I don’t need to test—I have Narcan.”
While it’s incredible to see Narcan becoming more mainstream, and festivals that once banned harm reduction services now embracing Narcan distribution, this progress hasn’t been matched with education around drug testing. That disconnect is creating a dangerous gap in drug safety awareness.
Narcan is an essential tool—everyone should carry it—but it’s not a substitute for testing. It’s a last line of defense, used after someone has already overdosed. Drug testing, on the other hand, is a proactive step that can help ensure you never get to that point.
It is also important to recognize the limitations of Narcan. Narcan only reverses opioid-related overdoses—which is very relevant for fentanyl-related overdoses, but does not cover other potential drug overdoses related to stimulants, benzos, etc, or account for unintentional drug interactions.
We need to do better as a community to understand the uses and limitations of Narcan, and work towards full prevention education.
3. You Need to Be Testing for More Than Just Fentanyl
Yes, fentanyl is one of the biggest concerns in today’s drug supply, and testing for it is absolutely essential—but it shouldn’t stop there.
Reagent testing, ideally cross-testing with multiple reagents, is just as important for verifying what a substance actually is and identifying additional adulterants.
That’s why we built the Transparency Harm Reduction App. The app tells you exactly which strips and reagents to use for different substances, and links you to our lab-verified video reactions so you can confidently compare your results.
The 2025 Festival Season Continues
EDC Las Vegas was just the beginning!
We’re proud of the work we did, the lives we touched, and the conversations we sparked, but we’re even more excited for what’s ahead.
As the 2025 festival season continues, we’re showing up with more tools, more knowledge, and more determination than ever! Whether it’s at festivals, conferences, pop-ups, partnerships, or simply connecting online, we’ll keep pushing to make harm reduction more visible, accessible, and empowering for everyone.
Stay safe, stay informed, and we’ll see you at the next stop!
