Guidelines for safe dance parties: the big book

Dance parties are becoming increasingly popular in New Zealand. As the dance scene is evolving, venues are changing from established or mainstream clubs to a growing trend for more outside and underground events. These developments may raise health and safety issues.The Ministry of Health hopes that these guidelines will be voluntarily adopted and widely used by operators who hold dance parties. They are intended as a guideline of best practice for organising dance events.These guidelines are an important part of the Ministry of Health's commitment to harm minimisation, reducing the hazards of drugs for dance party patrons who choose to use them, and promoting good safety practices.While the 'harm minimisation' approach adopted does acknowledge there is some illegal drug use in the dance scene, the emphasis is on organisers fulfilling a duty of care for 'punters' attending their events.The guidelines do not condone illegal drug use in any manner but note the realities that some people will choose to use drugs at dance parties. For people who do use, the information in these guidelines seeks to minimise the harm caused by that drug use.