TL;DR: Private companies are now fining festival visitors for drug possession, without the legal safeguards that apply to police. Festivals profit from these fines, the system is terrible for harm reduction, and visitors are barely informed. Read the fine print, report it here if you encounter it, and consider boycotting festivals that participate.

NRC published a genuinely disturbing investigation today. At several Dutch festivals, visitors caught with drugs are no longer necessarily handed over to the police. Instead, they are taken to a private company called ThinkTwice, pressured into signing an agreement and made to pay a “fine” of up to €600 on the spot.

This is not a fine imposed under criminal law. The company claims that bringing drugs onto the site breaches the festival’s terms and conditions, and that the visitor therefore owes the organizer compensation. The festivals pay ThinkTwice for its presence and then receive more than half of the money collected from visitors. ThinkTwice keeps the rest.

So yes, festival organizers are financially benefiting from catching their own visitors.

According to NRC, people are presented with a choice: sign and pay, or potentially be handed over to the police. They may be warned about questioning and a criminal record, even though a professor of criminal procedure interviewed by NRC points out that the Dutch Public Prosecution Service usually does not prosecute possession of a small amount for personal use. There is no right to a lawyer in the room, no independent oversight, no proper testing of the substance and no clear external standard for how the amount is calculated. ThinkTwice decides what counts as an “unit” itself.

The broader development is even worse. Municipalities are outsourcing powers that belong with the police to private companies, several of which are run by current or former police officers. These companies can interrogate people, confiscate substances, impose financial penalties and threaten escalation to the actual police, without being bound by the same rules, safeguards or oversight as the police.

Private companies performing police work for profit is a road towards fascism. That may sound dramatic, but what else do you call a system in which coercive power is handed to commercial actors, visitors have barely any meaningful legal protection, and both the company and the event profit financially from punishment?

Basically, this company threatens random visitors with ruining their lives, without having even found drugs on them yet and without offering any legal counsel. This is not acceptable.

It is also disastrous from a harm reduction perspective. Repressive drug policies do not magically stop people from using drugs. Even ThinkTwice admits it has no evidence that its system reduces use. It may simply make people hide their drugs better. Worse, visitors who become unwell may hesitate to approach medical staff because they are afraid of being caught, fined or handed over. NRC reports that plain-clothes “spotters” were walking around festival sites looking for prohibited behaviour, despite ThinkTwice claiming it does not search for drug users inside events.

This destroys the trust that harm reduction depends on. People need to be able to seek help immediately and without fear when something goes wrong.

ThinkTwice has already operated at SuperSized Kingsday, Harmony of Hardcore and ReBirth. NRC reports that Dominator, Festyland and Decibel Outdoor are also planning to use it. Of course, these are not festivals this subreddit focuses on. But we can never be sure the venues and festivals we love won't be next because municipalities pressure them. We have to stop this.

Please read the terms and conditions before buying a festival ticket. Organisers are hiding this shit in the fine print and then pretending that everyone has freely agreed to it. If you encounter ThinkTwice, private drug fines, plain-clothes spotters or anything similar at an event, share it on this subreddit.

And most important: BOYCOTT THESE FESTIVALS. Do not attend them. Do not buy tickets. Do not support organizers who turn their own visitors into a revenue stream for private policing.

Of course I don’t want to harm organizers who are putting their hearts in creating something beautiful. But in this capitalist world, most of the influence we have comes from where we choose to spend, or not spend, our money. Festivals that introduce private policing and turn punishment into a revenue model should feel the consequences of that decision. Don’t buy a ticket. Tell them why.

The full NRC article is in Dutch:
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2026/06/26/drugs-op-zak-bij-een-festival-dan-betaal-je-een-boete-niet-aan-de-politie-maar-aan-een-bedrijf-a4929285

Hey party people, I just want to share a google sheet I created tracking parties as they get announced for ADE’s big 30!!!! think it’ll be better on the eyes and navigation then RA or ADE’s website (there's also links to the parties)…feel free to use/share or not

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VgteewHpqzfM-S0xRvteGV-hwH6rUyrj7zZ3VGvK_jk/edit?gid=0#gid=0