Author: Landis Cornett
This past weekend was the annual Dawson Music Festival and B.Y.T.E was given the opportunity to have a booth set up in the vendor/informational table section of the festival grounds. You may have seen B.Y.T.E at last year’s music festival having youth between ages 12-30 fill out a survey on climate change for a video documenting the knowledge of Yukon youth. This year we thought it would be a great idea to do something similar, but with a different twist. We created an anonymous survey with the help of ADS (Alcohol and Drug Services) that would give us insight into what drugs/alcohol youth have used, the ages they started them and if they feel they use them safely. As an incentive for youth to fill out this survey we offered free bottles of water that were generously donated by Whitehorse Beverages.
Our first shift at our booth was from 7pm to 9pm on Friday evening. It was great to enjoy the live music in the background as we lured people over with the temptation of free water. People who came over to our booth soon learned that in order to get the free water they needed to complete the substance use survey. A few people questioned, “You’re not working with the police are you?!†We ensured them that the survey was completely anonymous, safe and our finding were going to help us re-design the B.Y.T.E safe-partying workshop. This workshop is based upon a harm reduction model and gives youth a chance to learn about substances that they may encounter, situations that may arise while partying, safe alternatives to problems that happen when partying, rights they have when it comes to the law, and the resources and places they can go for help or follow up information they want.
Crowds gather at the festival (stock image)
Day two was a longer shift from 10am to 5pm. In the morning it was very quiet at our booth. I’d guess many youth were still sleeping! Things started to pick up around 1pm and people were very eager to trade information for much needed re-hydration. The majority of youth that filled the survey out were from Whitehorse and Dawson, but surveyors came from as far as Great Britain, Montreal and Fairbanks. We had close to 140 surveys by the end of our shift, engaged with many youth, met new people, learned new facts about drugs and had a great time in the process! It was really fun to be part of DCMF this year and see everyone coming together with bright smiles on their faces and partying safely!Â