23-Year-Old Man Dies of Suspected Drug Overdose at Pitch Music & Arts

News of the incident broke after Pitch Music & Arts organizers ended the festival early due to extreme heat.

Tragedy and harsh conditions overshadowed Australian festival Pitch Music & Arts 2024 over the past weekend. A 23-year-old man passed away due to a suspected overdose, and extreme heat forced organizers to conclude the festival early out of abundance of caution.

Pitch was slated to run from March 8-12. As early as Thursday, March 7, the festival relayed that a total fire ban had been issued for the following Saturday in Moyston, the town outside Melbourne where the gathering takes place. After consulting with authorities, they moved ahead with programming on Saturday evening — but the following day, they announced that the remainder of the festival had been canceled.

The saddest news of the weekend came later that day. “We are deeply saddened to learn this evening that one of our People of Pitch has passed away after being airlifted to The Alfred hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning,” reads a statement from the festival. “Our thoughts are with their family, friends and anyone in our wider community affected by this.”

DJ Mag reports that the 23-year-old man was suspected to have died of a drug overdose. Two other men were hospitalized for the same ailment but are in stable condition.

Pitch Music & Arts debuted in 2017 as the brainchild of Untitled, a promoter that cut its teeth in the festival landscape with Beyond The Valley. The Pitch 2024 lineup included techno and house artists like Daniel Avery, Patrick Mason, Gerd Janson, Marcel Dettman, and VTSS.

As noted by The Guardian, the Victorian Greens have seized on last weekend’s death to pressure their political opponents to implement pill testing.

“While this Labor government continues to stall, young Victorian lives are being put at risk,” party spokesperson Aiv Puglielli said in a statement. “Even with pure MDMA we’ve seen how extreme heat can deal a deadly blow. So with untested drugs circulating, this was truly a disaster waiting to happen.”