Police will be out in force at Groovin' the Moo

BY JESSICA ROUSE

Police will be out in force at Maitland tomorrow with the annual Groovin' The Moo music festival on at Maitland Showground.

Alcohol and drug use is a major concern at the event and has been a serious problem in the past.

Last year a 15-year-old girl was left in a critical condition after a severe drug overdose.

Inspector David Bender from Maitland Police Station is urging music goers to behave and be alert.

"We'll have a drug dog presence there that will be screening people entering the venue at the main entrance and people with prohibited drugs on them can expect to be detected and appropriately dealt with and possibly look at criminal convictions",

 "I'd urge anyone that maybe is thinking of doing that to seriously reconsider," said Inspector David Bender.

Police will be present at the event all day as well.

"Very strong high visibility police presence at the venue and surrounding and there will also be a number of covert police in the area as well so you may think that you're not being watched but you perhaps will be," said Inspector David Bender.

There are temporary road closures in place around the showground for the event from 8am tomorrow until midnight.

For details: http://www.maitland.nsw.gov.au/RoadsandTraffic/EventClosures 

Image Maitland Showground

Noisy Neighbours

Police have praised Groovin the Moo revellers however Maitland residents were not so impressed with the noise levels.

Acts began performing at Maitland Showground around 11am and finished up around 10.30pm.

One residents complained to 2NUR.FM  that he could hear the event from 5 kilometres away.

Inspector Brain Tracy said the event often receives complaints from nearby residents and one of the headline acts did breach the Environment Protection Authority noise levels.

“Later on in the evening, around about 9.30pm one of the headlining acts was on, and the noise was very loud compared to the other acts. So we had our licencing police check with the event organisers… for a short time they were over (the EPA) limits so the music was turned straight down,” Inspector Tracy said.

The event at Maitland show ground attracted more than 16,000 people; police reported only 27 arrests for drug possession.

“We found that the audience was generally over eighteen,” Inspector Tracy said, “for that many people to have very minimal arrests and drug possessions, we were pretty happy with it.”

Police say this year’s festival behaviour  was moderately better than previous years.