Health and safety a priority as Escapade Music Festival begins in Ottawa

As tens of thousands of people descend on Lansdowne Park this weekend for the Escapade Music Festival, organizers and health officials will be keeping an eye on festival-goers to ensure their health and safety.

Last year, 16 people were transported to hospital for a variety of issues during the electronic dance music festival, including four people with critical overdoses. One person died in the hospital, there was no word on the cause of death.

Festival organizers are taking a multi-pronged approach to ensure everyone stays safe, including partnering with police and health officials to offer a drug box amnesty program.

"It allows people to drop off any illegal substances before they entered festival grounds," Ali Shafaee, Escapade Music Festival director, told CTV News Ottawa. "We also partnered this year with Pathways to Recovery; they will be on site handing out naloxone kits and naloxone training."

Ottawa paramedics will also be staffing multiple triage areas at Lansdowne Park this weekend. A festival health team, paramedics and nurses will be walking the grounds all weekend to see if anyone needs assistance.

The Escapade Music Festival lineup includes Marshmello, Alesso, Afrojack, Tiesto, Zedd, Kygo and Deadmau5.

Twenty-two thousand people are expected to attend each day of the festival, which has been sold out for months.

"Over 50 per cent of our festival-goers come from outside of the city of Ottawa," Shafaee said. "So hotels are full throughout the city. It's probably a $12 million direct economic impact for tourism for the city."

Three stages will be set up at Lansdowne, including inside TD Place and on the Great Lawn.

"The environment, the people – it's a loving community," Catherine Budd said Friday afternoon.

Escapade is one of several festivals happening across Ottawa during the first weekend of the summer. The Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival is at Mooney's Bay, Ottawa Jazz Festival is underway at several locations in downtown Ottawa and the Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival continues until Sunday at Mādahòkì Farm.