DanceSafe
The gold standard of festival harm reduction — DanceSafe's drug checking tables and test kit distribution have made psychedelic use safer at electronic music events for over 25 years.
Type: Harm Reduction
Location: National (Oakland, CA headquarters)
Members: 30+ chapters nationally
Membership: Open — free resources; chapter volunteer model
Venues: Music festivals, nightlife events, electronic music venues nationwide
Activities: Drug checking (reagent test kits, fentanyl strips), harm reduction information at events, pill testing, community education, chapter network at festivals including EDC, Coachella, Burning Man.
About
DanceSafe was founded in 1998 by Emanuel Sferios in the Bay Area in response to MDMA-related deaths in the electronic music community. The organization operates on a peer-based, non-judgmental harm reduction model: meet people where they are, provide accurate information, and give them tools to reduce risks rather than lecturing about abstinence.
DanceSafe's most visible work is deploying at major music festivals — EDC, Coachella, Burning Man, Lightning in a Bottle, and hundreds of regional events — where volunteer chapter members staff tables providing drug checking services (fentanyl strips, reagent test kits), harm reduction literature, and one-on-one information sessions. The organization sells test kits online and ships nationwide, making drug checking tools accessible outside of events.
For the psilocybin community specifically, DanceSafe has long provided reagent testing kits that allow users to verify that substances sold as psilocybin are genuine. As fentanyl contamination has spread into non-opioid drug supplies, DanceSafe's fentanyl strip distribution has become one of the most critical harm reduction interventions in the illicit psychedelic market.
Why It Matters
DanceSafe's 25+ years of operational harm reduction at scale — reaching tens of thousands of people annually at events — makes it the most experienced drug checking organization in the United States. Its model has been replicated globally and remains the most practically effective approach to reducing acute harms from psychedelic and MDMA use in festival and nightlife settings.
State Legal Context
See current psilocybin laws in California.