Department of Health

Shadows of Wonderland final festival for pill testing trial

15/03/26
A group of people clubbing

Pill testing will be available at Shadows of Wonderland music festival at the Port Melbourne Industrial Centre for the Arts (PICA) on Friday 1 May.

This will be the final festival included in Victoria’s 18-month pill testing implementation trial. The trial includes a mobile service for events and a fixed site service at 95 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy.

The pill testing service is free, legal and confidential. It is run by an experienced team of experts who provide information to help people make safer, more informed decisions.

The mobile service has attended four events this festival season. It has tested more than 1000 samples and had over 600 harm reduction conversations with festivalgoers. It also issued three general notifications for potentially dangerous substances across four events.

The service tested a record number of samples at the recent Pitch Music and Arts festival. During the 3-day event the service tested more than 670 samples and had more than 350 conversations with festival attendees.

Recent data shows there’s also strong demand for the pill testing service fixed site in Fitzroy. In the six months since opening, the Fitzroy service has tested more than 2300 drug samples, engaged 1300 people in harm reduction conversations and contributed important drug monitoring data.

To meet demand, the fixed site service will operate with extended hours on Thursdays and Fridays until the end of June 2026.

Read more about the Victorian Pill Testing ServiceExternal Link .

Reviewed 18 March 2026

Health.vic

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