Music is a big part of Raya Meredith's life, but these days she hesitates before going to a gig, scared she will be subject to a strip search by security or police.
WARNING: This article contains graphic content
Four years ago, Ms Meredith was about to go through the main entrance of the Splendour in the Grass festival when she was stopped by police with a sniffer dog and subjected to what she describes as a "degrading" body search.
Now, she is part of a class action launched on behalf of music festival patrons who allege they have been subject to an invasive search by NSW Police during the past six years.
The 27-year-old said police ordered her to lift her breasts and bend over to show them her genitals, to prove that a tampon was the only thing inside her body.
No drugs were found during the 30-minute search.
"The whole experience was really degrading, scary and confusing," she said.
"It took away all the fun that had been building up to that weekend, when all I wanted to do was go and listen to some live music, which is a big part of my life.
Redfern Legal Centre and law firm Slater and Gordon filed a statement of claim for the class action in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday, on behalf of several hundred people seeking damages from the state.
It alleges police carried out unlawful acts including assault, battery and false imprisonment against festival goers while searching them for illicit substances.
Redfern Legal Centre solicitor Samantha Lee said she hopes there will also be significant changes to the law to stop NSW Police doing searches except under serious and urgent circumstances.
"The legislation still allows for a child as young as 10 to be strip searched in New South Wales without a parent present. It still provides no clarification around cavity searches and squatting and coughing," she said.
"It still allows police to strip search without a support person present. So we want to see not just internal policy changes, but some really significant changes to the law."
Ms Meredith said she had agreed to lead the class action because what police did was wrong.
"There are laws in place regarding when police can search a person, and how those searches are to be conducted, but they didn't follow them with me," she said.
On Friday, one festival goer tweeted a photo of police with sniffer dogs at an airport, checking passengers on their way to Splendour in the Grass, being held in Byron Bay.
In 2019, NSW Coroner Harriet Grahame said evidence showed a heavy police presence and drug detection dogs could be intimidating and precipitate "panic ingestion" and "dangerous preloading", which could increase the risk of illness or fatality.
Ms Lee said the personal damage to young people was significant and could be compared to the impact of sexual assault.
"There is a level of embarrassment and shame, some of them don't even tell their parents because they were strip searched for suspicion of drug use and so they hang on to this really deep harm and emotion for a very long time," she said.
"Every other government profession has strong child-protection policies, I see absolutely no reason why this practise (strip searching) is not removed from the NSW Police force."
The LECC recommended the NSW Police revise their approach to music festivals, saying "general intelligence about drug use" at previous events were "not by itself sufficient to justify" the procedure.
NSW Police issued a statement saying they would not be commenting as the case is before the courts.
