Hey all-

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. Unfortunately we were removed from the property pretty early on.

I wanted to give everyone a summary of what went down this year and answer any questions you may have. I'm also interested in any feedback on how we can better approach the situation next year and at the rest of the events we have planned this summer.

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We were able to open up for about 36 hours and successfully distributed a couple hundred kits. The BunkBot system seems to function very well (except for the fact that it can be used by security to find us). Overall, I'm keeping positive and reluctantly calling this a success as we were able distribute what we could in a short time, test out BunkBot, and leave without having thousands of dollars worth of test kits confiscated like last time. It's sad that we're at the point where that's considered a win - but it is what it is.

That being said, I'm certainly not happy.

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Six "undercover narcotics security guards" (I kid you not, that's what they were calling themselves) followed me around on Friday for some time and eventually made their way back to where we were distributing the kits. I'm not sure if they used the BunkBot information to find me or not, but it surely wouldn't have been difficult. The first time I met everyone at the designated spot there were about fifty people. It wasn't exactly discrete.

Hiding this completely was never the point - that's impossible. The point was to give Bonnaroo the option to allow it to go on behind the scenes. All they had to do was ignore us. Legally, that's all they need - - - plausible deniability. "We didn't know this was happening and therefore couldn't stop it." This is the way it happened for over five years on the farm before Livenation took over. Security simply ignored us with our huge pink tent and sign. This time, we made it even easier. There was no visible location where people could get the wrong idea that we were allowed to exist there officially. We were only available through the number on our stickers.

Instead of just looking the other way, they treated like me a criminal (but with some respect - I'll give them that). They had me back up against a wall and held my I.D. against the side of my face, taking a picture for "Bonnaroo's Most Wanted" or whatever the fuck they need it for. That was pretty demeaning. None of them would give me their names or the name of whoever was making the decision to throw us out. They just kept saying the standard "we're just doing our jobs." I pointed out that the Nazis were also doing their jobs. They didn't exactly appreciate that. I probably should have held my tongue but I'm pretty much over this bullshit after having it happen four times in the last year.

For those wondering what the undercovers at Bonnaroo look like, they aren't hard to describe. It was several clones of Rick from Pawn Stars in various sizes wearing an array of cheesy "disguises." Khakis and terrible pro-marijuana / reggae t-shirts with sneakers with white socks for the most part. Obvious tasers / pepper spray / handcuffs / whatever haphazardly stuffed into their belts and under their untucked shirts.

Let's just say you're an idiot if you're selling anything to these guys.

I would also like to point out that these were PRIVATE security guards doing UNDERCOVER NARCOTICS WORK on private land - bringing those they deem an issue to the authorities and throwing the rest out. The whole thing seems a little bit off to me but I'll let you be the judge. Apparently they have fifty of these mouthbreathers lurking around every year.

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So yeah, that's four events attended so far for the year. We have a 50/50 record of being shut down at this point in the season after seven years of it happening VERY infrequently. Okeechobee shut us down this year as well. I should also mention that Electric Forest shut us down at both weekends last year. The industry is becoming more and more corporatized and legally conservative as the drug adulteration issue is getting steadily drastically worse due to fentanyl.

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It's clearly time for some new tactics. I have a few things up my sleeve, some of which I won't be mentioning until the next event and some I'll mention now so I can get feedback from the community.

1. Honesty-based unmanned FentKit stands. You walk up, grab as many kits as you need, and deposit your two bucks each into a box somehow anchored to the ground. There will also be an option to pay by Venmo / Cash / PayPal / Bitcoin / whatever.

Obviously we would be keeping an eye on these at least some of the time from a distance, but there would definitely be some time where either the festival or some morally-corrupt asshat could come by and either break into or remove it. Some people would take them for free. Hopefully some would also leave more than the minimum to make up for it.

Good idea? Bad idea? Let me know.

2) I've been batting around the idea for years of gathering dropped baggies by the dozen during an event's headliner. We would then send them to our laboratory in Spain, have them GC/MS & HPLC tested, and release the (insanely accurate) results.

It's time for these events to stop hiding behind the silly and utterly pointless searches they conduct pretending they're actually going to keep a damn thing out. I've managed to get 500 - 2,000 baseball sized test kits into every event I've ever attempted, many times right through the front gates in a damn Subaru, for years. It's absurdly easy if you know a few tricks.

If you decide to put a bunch of speakers, lasers, and glow shit in the middle of a field and play EDM all night there will be drugs. Period. There should also be harm reduction efforts present like nearly every other first-world country on the planet. We're decades behind the times and unfortunately we need to force their hand. This brings me to my next point:

3) Up until now all of this has pretty much all gone on behind closed doors. Events ignore emails asking them to allow harm reduction and then when we come in and do it anyways they quietly chuck us out the back door without any negative repurcussions. What happens when the world (and especially the internet) is watching?

I will have a journalist with me during the first weekend of Electric Forest (I cannot name the media outlet yet) as well as a GoPro strapped to my chest for the duration. As soon as security comes in, it gets flicked on. The journalist will be sitting there waiting to record the incident as well.

Before all of this goes down I'll be going to all of the campsites in the area and telling them the plan. I'll also be asking them to come running over to the tent to film with their phones and put up (nonviolent) resistance. I'll have a airhorn that I'll be firing off to let everyone know its time.

From there, we'll get directly into the tough questions on camera.

"Why are you throwing out a harm reduction organization when you know there's a drug problem at this event?"

"Who is making this decision and for what reason?"

"Is Livenation / Insomniac / Madison House too afraid of negative optics to confront these issues rather than hide from them?"

"Why has Livenation / Insomniac / Madison House decided to use the R.A.V.E. act as an excuse to maintain an unsafe environment?"

... and so on. Please add anything else you would like brought up.

Usually, I just leave when they ask me to after a few barbed words. This time I'm not planning on packing it up and making it so easy. Want me to leave? Pack it up and drive it out. You're going to arrest me? Do it on camera in front of this reporter and all these people.

(Electric Forest, if you're reading this, just leave us be)

3) There will be a different system for meeting up with the BunkBot reps from now on. Stay tuned for details, any input or ideas are more than welcome.

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That's all I have for now. As you can see, I'm planning on forcing the issue within the next few weeks for better or worse. Eight long years of sneaking around in dark places trying to provide an obviously necessary service has been ENOUGH.

It's time for someone to stand up and say so, damn the consequences.

Stay Stellar,

-=Adam Auctor=-

Founder - The Bunk Police / BunkBot

I would also like to point out that 58 people signed up to put out stickers and posters at Bonnaroo. Six people actually showed up before they kicked me out at 4pm on Friday.

We can do better. If you are fucking SERIOUS about taking on this issue at Paradiso, Electric Forest, Bisco, GOTJ, TomorrowWorld, BurningMan, then send me a concise email with some effort put into it telling me HOW you plan to help and WHY I should trust you to DO this work and not just talk about it.

[[email protected]](/)