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Over 130 people are dying everyday across the US from Opioid related overdoses. WE HOPE THIS FESTIVAL WILL BE LAST TIME WE WILL NEED TO HOLD THIS BENEFIT AND THIS NATIONAL EPIDEMIC COMES TO A CLOSE. To help in the prevention and awareness of the opioid epidemic the festival will have multiple tents and areas to assist/counsel individuals who are experiencing problems with opioids either indirectly or individually. There will also be a tent of photos in memory of individuals who have died from opioid overdoses. The event will be giving away free doses of Narcan (naloxone) which is an opioid antagonist used for the complete or partial reversal of opioid overdose. Partial proceeds of the event will go directly to an organization TBA to help fight the epidemic. Many acts will perform songs that they have written about the crisis.

If this event can help save a life then it certainly is well worth the cause. We plan to continue to hold this benefit annually until the epidemic is OVER. When that happens we will explore our options and determine if we wish to hold another benefit for another worthy cause or carry on the event as stand alone music festival in memory of those who lost there life from opioid related deaths.

Every day, more than 130 people in the United States die after overdosing on opioids.¹ The misuse of and addiction to opioids—including prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl—is a serious national crisis that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the total "economic burden" of prescription opioid misuse alone in the United States is $78.5 billion a year, including the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement.²

How did this happen?

In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers, and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates. This subsequently led to widespread diversion and misuse of these medications before it became clear that these medications could indeed be highly addictive.^3,4 Opioid overdose rates began to increase. In 2017, more than 47,000 Americans died as a result of an opioid overdose, including prescription opioids, heroin, and illicitly manufactured fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid.¹ That same year, an estimated 1.7 million people in the United States suffered from substance use disorders related to prescription opioid pain relievers, and 652,000 suffered from a heroin use disorder (not mutually exclusive).⁵

What do we know about the opioid crisis?

This issue has become a public health crisis with devastating consequences including increases in opioid misuse and related overdoses, as well as the rising incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome due to opioid use and misuse during pregnancy. The increase in injection drug use has also contributed to the spread of infectious diseases including HIV and hepatitis C. As seen throughout the history of medicine, science can be an important part of the solution in resolving such a public health crisis.