Nearly 70,000 drug overdose-related fatalities occur in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Approximately 48,000 of those deaths can be linked to synthetic opioids such as illicit fentanyl and its derivatives — and about 20 of those fatalities occur at music-related festivals. At Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival and other events, non-profit organization This Must Be The Place provides free access to naloxone, a medication used to combat the effects of drug-related overdoses.
Ingela Travers-Hayward and her husband, William Perry, founded the nonprofit organization. Travers-Hayward, an Emmy-winning producer, spent years working for MTV Canada and producing documentaries before changing her career to advocating for overdose prevention. As an adolescent, Perry fell into a tough crowd — which led to serving 10 years in prison. That’s where he found sobriety and realized he wanted to help others do the same. In 2022, the founders saw the rise of deaths caused by fentanyl-laced party drugs at festivals. Because of this, they started This Must Be The Place.
“So we decided, ‘Why don’t we go to music festivals?’” Travers-Hayward said. “It’s an environment where everyone’s in a good mood, you know? And then we can have those conversations with people so that they can take a kit of Narcan and bring it back into their daily life.”
Pharmaceutical companies and state health departments donate supplies of naloxone for distribution by the nonprofit. Naloxone, more popularly known as Narcan, is an opioid antagonist, meaning it connects to opioid receptors and blocks and reverses the effects of opioids.
This weekend, This Must Be The Place can be found at Bonnaroo, where organizers educate about drug addiction and overdose while handing out free Naloxone to festival-goers. The group’s primary mission is to keep patrons safe from an accidental overdose.
For many, Bonnaroo represents a good time, but is also often associated with illegal substances. Even though ‘Roo rules prohibit illegal substances on the grounds, attendees manage to slip through with them every year.
This Must Be The Place has two tents on the festival grounds: In Centeroo – where most artists perform – and in Outeroo, the campgrounds. Collectively, staff and volunteers spread awareness throughout the days and nights by talking with people as they visit to the tents and handing out free naloxone.
“Every person that comes up gets individualized training. It’s about two minutes of their time,” said Travers-Hayward. “We run through the signs and symptoms, what to do, the importance of still calling medical. We make sure that everyone feels really comfortable carrying this around.”
Since 2022, This Must Be The Place has grown exponentially. From starting in Ohio, the organization now attends about 15 festivals a year.
“Bonnaroo was one of the very first to give us that ‘yes,’ and invite us in so that we could set up out there in the campgrounds in Plaza 3 and hand out Narcan,” Perry said. “Honestly, after we had the calling card saying that we had done Bonnaroo, it opened the door to all kinds of festivals.”
After spending five years on The Farm, This Must Be The Place doesn’t plan on slowing down. Year by year, Travers-Hayward and Perry are opening up with compassionate conversations about a hard topic, with hopes of breaking down stigmas around drug overdose education.
“Even though this is just one small thing, every single person that walks away from here walks away with the idea of a little bit of vigilance and a little bit of compassion in their mind,” Perry said. “They would be willing to step in and help someone, no matter what their beliefs are, no matter what they look like, no matter what they subscribe to.”
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