Reading and Leeds: We can't stop drugs getting on site

The man who puts on some of the biggest festivals in the UK admits he can not stop every illegal drug getting on to site.

Melvin Benn was speaking to Newsbeat ahead of the start of Reading and Leeds festivals this weekend.

"I can't control it any more than the government can control it coming into Great Britain," he said.

The festival organiser says the best they can do is work hard to limit it and help those who have been affected.

There are 90,000 people expected at Reading festival this weekend and up to 80,000 at the Leeds site.

"If there is anything here at Reading Festival it hasn't come from Mars," Benn told Newsbeat.

"It's come through the ports, it's come through the towns and cities, it's come through all the opportunities the government have got to stop it.

"The truth is we all know you just can't stop it but you have to work really hard to limit it."

Benn said they work closely with the police to to ensure drug dealers are not active.

"Ultimately we have to respond if somebody has managed to buy something that isn't great for them and they are pretty unwell as a result of it," he explained.

Benn said they have a "fantastic" medical team to look after people if they suffer bad effects after taking drugs.

"That's what the state does in terms of ambulance service and it's what we do here at Reading and Leeds too.

The festival organiser admitted the potential for things to go wrong is "phenomenal."

"They (fans) are all partying they are all having a laugh, they're full of trying to get up to no good but all within pretty reasonable boundaries.

"The potential of things going wrong is fairly substantial but somehow it doesn't."

"We've dealt with an awful lot of problems over the year.

"I am not even remotely complacent about any single one of them but i am confident we can deal with just about everything that gets thrown at us."

While the Rolling Stones were the big news headliners over the summer, Melvin Benn appears to have taken a risk on newer artists.

It will be the first time Biffy Clyro headline here.

"Interestingly enough, the day tickets for Biffy Clyro in Leeds have sold out before everybody else," he said.

"I wouldn't do it because I think I have a responsibility to do it, I do because actually they are phenomenal band waiting to be a headliner."

Benn also gave Foals their first UK festival headline slot at Latitude festival.

The Oxford band admitted they were worried at first but excited that younger bands were being given this opportunity.

"As a festival director, we have got to make sure we are bringing acts through," he said.

"After their [Foals] performance [at Latitude] they realised they are a headline act and that was one of the most extraordinary sets I've seen at Latitude.

"It will be equally good when they play here this weekend and it will be equally good when they've headlined reading and Leeds because I am certain they will.

He thinks it might be a lack of confidence that is preventing some younger acts from being seen as a headliner.

"In some ways the UK music scene can be very easy to be overtaken by the American music scene," he explained.

"The American industry is so powerful, I do think sometimes the UK acts think, we're only from Britain, are we as good as the Americans?

"Trust me they are."

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