Back to Our Roots: Bringing Free Fentanyl Test Strips to Electric Forest

The Bunk Police has had a long and at times rocky history with Electric Forest. In many ways, we consider it the birthplace of our organization. In 2011, our founder, Adam, began attending with a single backpack of test kits and the goal of testing as many substances as possible for anyone who needed them. The work began as free, direct outreach within the festival community, and that grassroots effort eventually grew into Bunk Police.

We returned to Electric Forest year after year, expanding our reach while continuing to focus on direct education and access to drug-checking tools. In more recent years, our booth served as a place where attendees could pick up test kits, learn how to use them, and ask questions without judgment. It also gave us the opportunity to talk directly with thousands of people about the realities of the unregulated drug supply and the importance of using more than one drug-checking tool.

Our presence at the festival has not always been welcomed. In 2024, our team was removed from the premises multiple times, with the RAVE Act cited as the reason. The following year brought a significant change. In 2025, we were able to operate throughout the weekend without being questioned or removed, and multiple security and police officers approached our team to thank us for being there. We served and educated hundreds of attendees through our booth, an on-foot team that visited campsites, one-on-one education, and giveaways.

This year, we knew well in advance that we would not have our usual booth at the festival, and we made sure our community had time to prepare. As Electric Forest got closer, however, we kept thinking about the number of people who would arrive expecting to find us and the serious lack of accessible drug-checking resources at large mainstream events. We decided that even without a booth, we needed to find another way to support the community.

We assembled a small team who were local to the region, packed free fentanyl test kits, and headed to Electric Forest for four days of grassroots harm reduction outreach. Without the infrastructure of a booth, we returned to the mobile, community-based approach that Adam brought to the Forest with one backpack in 2011.

Why Drug Checking Is Still Difficult to Access at Major Festivals

Drug use occurs at music festivals regardless of whether event organizers acknowledge it, but comprehensive drug-checking services are still missing from many of the largest events in the United States. Organizations like Bunk Police, Transparency, and DanceSafe frequently encounter restrictions, resistance, and uncertainty when trying to provide these resources onsite.

Part of that resistance has been shaped by the federal legislation commonly referred to as the RAVE Act. The law does not explicitly state that providing harm reduction services is illegal, and it has never been used to successfully prosecute an event organizer because harm reduction services were present. However, its language has contributed to long-standing concerns among promoters and venue operators that acknowledging drug use or allowing certain services could expose them to legal, insurance, or financial consequences.

These concerns have created a chilling effect throughout the live-events industry. Smaller independent events are often more willing to work directly with harm reduction organizations, while many mainstream festivals continue to limit or prohibit drug-checking services. Attendees are then left to navigate an unpredictable supply with fewer tools and less reliable information.

Bringing Drug-Checking Resources Directly to the Community

Without a central booth, our Electric Forest outreach looked different this year. Our team moved through the campgrounds, gathering spaces, and festival grounds distributing free fentanyl test kits and speaking with attendees about how to use them correctly.

Some of the people we met were already familiar with Bunk Police and had been looking for our booth. Others had never used a test kit and needed someone to explain the process. These conversations reinforced how much demand there is for practical, nonjudgmental drug-checking education, especially when those resources are not officially provided or clearly identified onsite.

Our team also discussed the limitations of fentanyl test strips. Test strips are an important screening tool, but they cannot identify every unexpected substance in a sample or confirm that a substance contains what someone believes they purchased. For more information, we encourage people to use the Transparency Triple Check:

No at-home testing method can determine that a substance is safe. Using multiple drug-checking tools can provide more information and may reveal concerns that a single testing method could miss.

Four Days of Outreach at Electric Forest

Over four days, our team experienced the parts of Electric Forest that bring people back each year, including the music, art, campgrounds, unexpected interactions, and sense of community throughout the festival. At the same time, the weekend offered a constant reminder of why this work remains necessary.

People recognized the Bunk Police name and told us they had been trying to find drug-checking supplies. Some attendees wanted additional kits for their camps, while others wanted help understanding reagent testing or using the Transparency Harm Reduction App. Each conversation showed us how many festival attendees actively want access to better information about the substances they may encounter.

It also showed how difficult those resources can be to locate without a visible harm reduction presence. Attendees should not have to rely entirely on word of mouth to find out whether someone in a campground has a test kit. Drug-checking resources should be clearly identified, easy to access, and supported as part of an event's broader health infrastructure.

Ideally, attendees would know where to ask questions and access tools before an emergency occurs. Festival maps could clearly identify drug-checking and harm reduction locations, and trained teams could provide education without attendees worrying about judgment or punishment. These measures would acknowledge the conditions that already exist at large events and offer a more realistic response to them.

Grassroots Outreach Cannot Carry the Entire Responsibility

We are proud of the team members who stepped up and the community members who helped distribute kits throughout Electric Forest. Peer-to-peer education has always been an important part of harm reduction, and a single conversation or kit can continue traveling through an entire campsite.

However, informal community outreach should not be the only way that people can access drug-checking resources at an event of this size. Harm reduction organizations can distribute kits, share information before a festival, teach people how to use the Transparency Harm Reduction App, and encourage attendees to bring supplies for their friends. We will continue doing this work wherever possible, but meaningful access also requires cooperation from promoters, venues, insurers, policymakers, and public health officials.

The current approach often leaves attendees and independent organizations filling gaps that could be addressed through official support. Providing honest information and practical tools is a public health response to the realities of the drug supply. It allows people to make more informed decisions without suggesting that any testing method can remove all risk.

Continuing to Show Up for the Festival Community

Our presence at Electric Forest was different this year, but our purpose remained the same. We distributed free fentanyl test kits, answered questions, discussed more complete testing practices, and helped people use the Transparency Harm Reduction App to verify reagent reactions. Returning to a grassroots model also reminded us how much of Bunk Police's identity was built at Electric Forest and how strongly that original spirit continues to shape our work.

We hope to see a future in which comprehensive harm reduction and drug-checking services are welcomed at every major music festival. Until that happens, Bunk Police and Transparency will continue finding ways to connect people with the tools and information they are actively seeking.

Before attending your next event, learn how to use fentanyl test strips and reagent kits, download the Transparency Harm Reduction App, and consider bringing enough supplies to share with the people around you. Drug-checking tools are available at BunkPolice.com, and you can learn more about the work behind the Transparency Harm Reduction App at InfiniteTransparency.com.

Related Resources

Learn more about drug checking before your next event:

• Fentanyl Test Kits – Shop FentKits for festival and everyday drug checking
• How to Test for Fentanyl – Critical first step before testing any substance
• Transparency Harm Reduction App – AI-powered testing guidance with 1,100+ verified reaction videos
• Our Types of Test Kits – Understanding spot kits, separation kits, and purity tests
• Reaction Video Library – Watch real-time reagent reactions to compare with your tests
• QTest Purity Test Kit Basics – How quantitative potency testing works
• Transparency Testing Lab Services – Mail-in GC-MS and LC-MS analysis
• Safety Information – Important guidelines for safe testing practices

Sources

• 21 U.S.C. § 856 — Maintaining drug-involved premises (the federal statute commonly associated with the RAVE Act debate): https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/21/856