Singapore ‘no’ to concert after drug overdoses in M’sia

Police have rejected permits for Future Music Festival Asia after six died of drug overdoses at the same concert last year in M’sia.

SINGAPORE: Looks like Livescape, the Malaysia-based organiser of Future Music Festival Asia (FMFA), is unable to shake the bad reputation it earned when six Malaysians died from drug overdoses at the same concert when it was held in Malaysia last year.

Having shifted the venue to Singapore to be held over the weekend of March 13 and 14, police however have rejected their permits twice, citing fears of potential drug abuse.

Livescape has turned to the Home Ministry instead and is hoping to get an answer by tomorrow, Singapore’s Today reported.

In efforts to appease the authorities and prevent a repeat of the tragedy in Malaysia, the Straits Times reported the organisers as saying random drug tests would be conducted this time and that they would increase the number of medical staff at the venue. Apart from the deaths at last year’s concert, 16 people were hospitalised for drug-related reasons.

There will also be increased security and safety measures as well as a smaller crowd and higher security personnel to participant ratio at this year’s festival.

Saying their losses would be huge should the Home Ministry reject their permit (they have already sunk S$2.5 million into FMFA) co-founder Iqbal Ameer said a viable alternative would be to host different artistes at different venues across the island. They would also issue refunds to ticket-holders who insisted on it.

Livescape has already sold 15,000 of the 20,000 tickets for the concert that will feature Avicii, The Prodigy, Fat Boy Slim, and Afrojack.