THE FATAL MIX AT HAPPY VALLEY: DANCE PARTY SCENE CLOSES RANKS

It took Ming Darcy and Abel el Toro seven years to get their Happy Valley
festival running again, and they were determined to do it right.

Anticipating large amounts of dance party drugs - mainly ecstasy and
amphetamines - they set up showers, water stalls and chill-out zones in each
of the four sites at Cataract Park, near Appin.

Mr Darcy told the Herald last month: "The air was fresh, instead of the
soot- and asbestos-infested warehouses we'd been used to."

But yesterday, following the death of a man at Happy Valley on Sunday, Mr
Darcy, 29, was not talking, demanding instead a fee for an "exclusive" story
to recoup some of the $250,000 he and his partner had invested in the event.

The man's death - after he apparently went without sleep for three days and
took a mixture of legal and illegal drugs - came in spite of the organisers'
measures to minimise harm.

And the dance club scene has closed ranks against what one insider said was
a "hysterical over-reaction" to the death.

About 10,000 people dance in inner-city clubs each weekend - more than half
taking illegal drugs - with minimal health problems.

The owner of the Sublime nightclub, Mr Simon Page, said: "To say dance drugs
are killing our kids is absurd. We need to strip the emotion out of the
debate and look at serious ways of minimising harm."

Mr Darcy and Mr el Toro started the festival in 1991 at Wisemans Ferry but
tragedy struck in 1992 when two people died in car crashes and it lapsed
after the 1993 event.

This year's festival had a bumpy build-up, with sales slowed by a
late-summer lull. At $60 a head, tickets stretched the resources of young
people who had already set aside funds for New Year's Eve and the Big Day
Out. About 6,000 people were at Happy Valley.

St John's Ambulance officers reported only six drug-related incidents out of
a likely 5,000 recreational drug-users.

Condemnation of the event is likely only to deepen the misunderstanding
between youth and their parents, says Dr Michael Booth, of the NSW Centre
for the Advancement of Adolescent Health.

"Most people participating at rave parties are just having a good time," he
said.

"Their mums and dads did the same thing when they were young, only they were
drinking from a bottle of scotch instead of taking ecstasy.

"Were they running away from problems? No, they were just being larrikins.

"Young people have always taken risks. They drive too fast, climb cliffs,
and take drugs. They have a different understanding of what constitutes
risk, because they have a feeling of omnipotence.

"They feel that nothing bad can happen to them. If you tell them they're
putting their lives at risk they ignore you and judge those risks for
themselves."

As far as risks are concerned, statistics show that taking ecstasy offers
better odds than a number of other activities, according to the Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare.

Accidental deaths from all drug use occurs at a rate of 0.6 per 100,000 of
the population for those aged 12 to 19, and 1.9 per 100,000 for those in the
20-24 group. About 40 per cent of the 20-24 group reported recent illicit
drug use, meaning that about one accidental death was likely for every
60,000 drug users.

By comparison, deaths from car and other accidents, violence and suicide
come at a rate of one per 2,500.

"Young people are not very well understood," said Dr Booth. "Most of their
behaviour is purposive and goal-directed. They feel put upon when these
random images are used to describe them.

"We are always outraged when a young person dies. But if you put it into
context, they lose so many productive years through car accidents and
tobacco and alcohol abuse, deaths from party drugs are relatively
insignificant."

In contrast to the prejudicial images of feral teenagers dancing in the
Appin dust, Happy Valley was a slickly organised, sophisticated event three
years in the making.

It was sponsored by a number of companies trying to position themselves in
the booming youth dance music market, including Bacardi, the nightclubs
Sublime and home, and the Web concern KGrind (which is itself backed by
Macquarie Bank), and given government approval.

Happy Valley featured 82 DJs and 24 bands performing on 10 stages from
midday on Friday to midday on Sunday.

Dance music breeds a tribal, fragmented culture, with such arcane variations
as speed garage, drum & bass, filtered disco, progressive and doof.

All were represented at Happy Valley, allowing the patrons, as Mr Darcy told
3-D World magazine last week, "to leave aside all the politics of the
'scene' mentality. You forget all that and enjoy the party."

Mr Max Christie, of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of
Sydney, said: "The usual dosage of ecstasy is about 70-100mg of pure MDMA in
one event, and then abstinence for several weeks.

"There is strong evidence that heavy prolonged use has long-term
consequences such as brain damage. That use pattern is something like 10 to
20 doses over several days.

"But as far as death is concerned, it is very idiosyncratic. You can't pick
who is going to be a victim, because the causes are so diffuse."