Dreamville Festival educates 1,700 people on fentanyl overdose prevention
The impact of the Dreamville Festival at Dix Park in Raleigh goes well beyond good vibes and even tourism impact.
During the two-day festival on April 6-7, organizers worked with the nonprofit This Must Be The Place to provide three-minute training to about 1,700 people among the 104,000 guests at the festival about how to respond to fentanyl overdoses.
“They know they might be around somebody,” This Must Be The Place director William Perry said. “They might just be fed up with hearing about fentanyl overdoses and now they’re willing to do something, or they are people who just truly care.”
This Must Be The Place also passed out Narcan, which is a naloxone nasal spray that is an over-the-counter opioid overdose treatment. Perry said he thinks 5-7% of the naloxone distributed will be used within the next year.
“Dreamville, it is art. It is safety,” Perry said. “Let’s go and have fun.”
Perry said he hopes the training might help save a life. He said the goal is that each trainee will use their training to help someone as they return to their daily life.
This week in Goldsboro, authorities have investigated four deaths in four days. Police are investigating those cases as possible overdose deaths.
In 2022, 31 children died from fentanyl, according to data presented to the unintentional death prevention committee of the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force.
Data released by the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner showed the state has had a steady increase in suspected overdose deaths from 2018-2022:
- 2018: 2,554
- 2019: 2,688
- 2020: 3,132
- 2021: 3,961
- 2022: 4,243
