Boom Festival: The Kosmicare Project

MAPS Bulletin Special Edition

ARTUR SOARES DA SILVA, BOOM FESTIVAL TEAM

Held in Portugal every other year since 1997, the Boom Festival focuses on

sustainability, knowledge, spirituality, psychedelic arts, music, and culture. Boom at-

tracts people from around the world—43,000 people attended from 152 countries in

2014—on the shores of a magnicent lake. Due to Portugal’s forward-thinking 2001

decriminalization law, Boom has been developing an unique harm reduction and risk

Spring 2015

“Humans possess the capacity to create a culture of caring and

concern for people in distress. Helping people in crisis is intrinsic

to the nurturing side of human character.”

—Ho & Adamowski (1998)

minimization project since 2002.

Portugal is a country with a vast history of intercontinental

discovery, Inquisition, earthquakes, the birth of Brazil, national

bankruptcies, beautiful beaches, great surng, and a laid-back

way of life. In 2001, against all odds and strong internal criticism,

a progressive drug decriminalization law was announced. It was

the last attempt to solve a national epidemic of drug addiction

during the 1980s and 1990s; a Eurobarometer survey conducted

in 1997 showed that the Portuguese considered drug-related

issues related to be the most important social problem in the

MAPS Bulletin Special Edition

country. It has been estimated that 0.7% of the Portuguese

population has used heroin at least once (the second highest rate

in Europe), and HIV cases have skyrocketed.

The 2001 law decriminalized possession of all drugs for

consumption as the most eective way to limit consumption

and reduce the number of addicts. It encouraged and promoted

prevention and education projects, including harm reduction,

treatment programs, and activities that helped at-risk groups or

drug users to restore their connections with family, work, and

society. It was in this context that Boom Festival began develop-

ing our own harm reduction—Kosmicare (formerly CosmiKiva

Sanctuary)—back in 2002.

The idea of a drug-free society is an illusion that will never

come true. The same goes for festivals. Drug users report using

drugs (alcohol included) for a large number of reasons: to ad-

dress personal problems, recreation, pleasure, spiritual growth,

transcendence, potentiating personal insights, getting in touch

with their inner world, increasing creativity, and more.

There were two phases of harm reduction and risk mini-

mization at Boom. The rst ran from 2002 to 2008, focused on

drug use at the festival itself. The second phase, which began in

2010, focuses not only on intervention at the festival but also

with the scientic discovery and validation of harm reduction

methods. It is also in 2010 that pivotal partnerships started tak-

ing place, showing how progressive laws in Portugal could help

festival participants. In that year, Boom Festival signed a unique

protocol that involved the Institute for Drugs and Drug Addic-

tion (IDT), part of the Portuguese Ministry of Health and the

Catholic University of Porto. The protocol’s objectives were to

improve intervention at the festival by maximizing resources

and more eective liaisons with osite health services. There

was also a special eort to conduct scientic investigations in

association with the University with the goal to transform Kos-

micare into an evidence-based intervention model that could

be disseminated to similar settings and populations.

Kosmicare now consists of a team of 40 people (psychia-

trists, therapists, psychologists, homeopaths, therapists, and vol-

unteers) working at the festival site in a central area with tipis,

yurts, and a seating area. It has a drug testing service nearby one

of the music areas where festival attendees can learn about the

substances they have used or are considering using. The service

also provides public alerts if necessary. The project also works in

collaboration with the festival’s in-house medical services (doc-

tors, medics and nurses), with osite health services (hospitals or

health centers in the region) and security stewards.

Decriminalization in Portugal created a legal framework

for the implementation of harm reduction policies, and the so-

cial reintegration and de-stigmatization of drugs and drug use.

For consumers, decriminalization eliminates the fear of testing

their substances and undergoing treatment. This approach is

humanistic (i.e., a sick or in-crisis person needs help) and prag-

matic (i.e., repressive measures have been ineective in limiting

consumption). Our experience at Boom Festival has been very

positive in that we have been successful in not only helping

people avoid or process traumatic experiences, but also produc-

ing empirical data that can be used by any event organizer.

REFERENCES

References by Maria do Carmo Carvalho, Catholic University of

Porto, Boom Festival Team, and Kosmicare Manager.

INTERNATIONAL DRUG POLICY

Avilés, C. (2014). El regimen internacional de control de

drogas: formación, evolución, y interacción con las políticas na-

cionales: el caso de la política de drogas en España. (investigação

recente sobre a história da lei das drogas). CF ANEXOS

Quintas, J. (2011). Regulação legal do consumo de drogas:

impactos da experiência portuguesa da descriminalização. (revi-

sion of legal models, emphasizing decriminalization regulations)

Boaz & Lynch (2009). The war on drugs. Cato Handbook

for Policy makers. http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/les/

serials/les/cato-handbook-policymakers/2009/9/hb111-33.

pdf (North American perspective)

Rosmarin & Eastwood (2012). A quiet revolution: drug

decriminalization polices in practice across the globe. http://

www.ihra.net/les/2012/09/04/Chapter_3.4_drug-decrimi-

nalisation_.pdf

DECRIMINALIZATION IN PORTUGAL

Quintas, J. (2011). Regulação legal do consumo de drogas:

impactos da experiência portuguesa da descriminalização. (Eval-

uation of the decriminalization law in Portugal after 10 years, its

impact and results: psychologic and criminal perspective.)

Costa (2009). Descriminalização do consumo de estupe-

facientes em Portugal: análise preliminar. (Evaluation of Por-

tuguese law, judicial perspective.) http://www.sicad.pt/BK/

RevistaToxicodependencias/Lists/SICAD_Artigos/Attach-

ments/477/01_Toxico_n3_2009A.pdf.

Domostawski (2011). Política das Drogas em Portugal: os

benefícios da descriminalização do consumo de drogas. (Law

evaluation, international perspective.) http://www.confemel.

com/eme/documentos/poldrogportugal.pdf

Domostawski (2011). http://www.opensocietyfounda-

tions.org/reports/drug-policy-portugal-benets-decriminaliz-

ing-drug-use (in English).

Greenwald (2009). Drug decriminalization in Portugal.

Lessons for creating fair and successful drug policies. (Evaluation

of the Portuguese, law international perspective) http://www.

cato.org/sites/cato.org/les/pubs/pdf/greenwald_whitepaper.

pdf

LAW, HARM REDUCTION,

AND RISK MINIMIZATION

Costa (2001). Redução de Danos: preconceitos, obstáculos,

justicações. (Critical analysis about common perspectives on

HRRM before and right after the begin of the decriminal-

Spring 2015

ization law.) http://www.sicad.pt/BK/RevistaToxicodepen-

dencias/Lists/SICAD_Artigos/Attachments/235/2001_03_

TXT7.pdf

Barbosa, J. (2009). A emergência da redução de danos em

Portugal: da “clandestinidade” à legitimação política. http://

repositorio.esepf.pt/bitstream/handle/123456789/1493/

TM_2014-MIC-Estela%20Simao.pdf.pdf?sequence=1

EMCDDA (2012). Harm Reduction: evidence, impacts

and challenges. http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/attachements.

cfm/att_101257_EN_EMCDDA-monograph10-harm%20

reduction_nal.pdf

HARM REDUCTION AND RISK

MINIMIZATION AT FESTIVALS

Hoof, L., A., & Adamowski, K. (1998). Creating excellence

in crisis care: A guide to eective training and program designs. San

Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Lomba et al (2011). Jovens portugueses que frequentam

ambientes recreativos noturnos. Quem são e que comporta-

mentos adotam. (Research in some cities in Portugal under-

lining the relevance of HRRM.) http://novellos.blogspot.

pt/2013/08/substancias-psicoativas-em-ambientes.html

Parker, Williams & Aldridge (2002). The normalization

of sensible recreational drug use. (UK research justifying the

relevance of HRRM in festivals.) http://www.brown.uk.com/

brownlibrary/parker.pdf

The Manual of Psychedelic Support. http://psychsitter.com

KOSMICARE

Carvalho et al (2014). Current Drug Abuse Reviews http://

eurekaselect.com/127455

Puente (2009). Kosmicare y Boom Festival 2008: atendi-

endo emergências psiquedelicas en la línea de frente. (History of

Kosmicare/Kosmikiva at Boom Festival and drug testing.)

Artur Soares da Silva was born in Lisboa, Portugal. He is a member

of Boom Festival, a social psychologist, and is pursuing his MA in cul-

ture management. Artur’s love for music led him to be active on many

fronts on the electronic music scene in Portugal since the mid 1990s.

He has been involved with Boom since the early days as party goer and

production sta. He has worked on communication for magazines, web-

sites and TV; has written and produced documentaries; organized music

events; and studied the importance of music for the reduction of racism

on poor neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Lisboa. His main intention

as Boom team member is to support the Great Transition. He can be

reached at communication@boomfestival.org.

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