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ACL Festival: Non-profit to distribute Narcan
The Austin City Limits Music Festival is just one day away, and for the first time, festival goers will have the option to pick up free Naloxone, or Narcan, an opioid overdose medication.
AUSTIN, Texas - Thanks to the nonprofit This Must Be The Place, festival goers will be able to get their hands on an overdose reversing medication at both weekends of Austin City Limits (ACL).
ACL posted to their social media that they partnered with the nonprofit to educate fans about the dangers of fentanyl and supply them with the life-saving opioid reversal medicine.
"When you hand one of these to someone, you see that look of empowerment come across them because they most likely know someone in their life that they now know they can keep safe when they're around them," said William Perry, Director of This Must Be The Place.
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Austin departments provide ACL safety tips
Various Austin public safety departments provided safety recommendations to the public as the Austin City Limits Festival kicks off this weekend.
Perry drove down to Austin from Ohio with his co-founder to pass out 6,000 kits of naloxone to ACL festival goers.
"Our hope is that nothing is ever needed on festival grounds and that each one of these potentially 6,000 kits that we're going to hand out make it back into someone else's home, their community, their business, whatever, and are able to keep someone safe," he said.
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It is something this nonprofit has been doing for the last two years. Perry says they have traveled nationwide in order to educate people on the dangers in the midst of the growing fentanyl epidemic.
So far, the nonprofit has passed out over 30,000 kits of naloxone since March 2022.
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What to know before purchasing ACL tickets
The Austin City Limits Music Festival draws hundreds of thousands to Austin every year. Tickets from the official vendor sell out fast, and many turn to a third-party source.
"We've done everything from Lollapalooza right down to, I've given out naloxone at a poetry reading before, so anywhere that music or art is made, we believe lives can be saved," said Perry.
Perry says his favorite parts of this are answering questions and just having a conversation.
"Throughout our couple of years, we've laughed with people, we've cried with people, you know, everything in between, because this is something that's impacted everyone at this point in some way or another," he said.
This Must Be The Place will have a booth set up on ACL grounds near the T-Mobile stage.