Take Care xoxo
ACON's Harm Reduction Campaign and Rover services across Mardi Gras 2025
Another fabulous Mardi Gras season has passed and we’re still reveling in the amazing outfits, incredible performances and the chance to deliver harm reduction and health promotion to the community we love.
We wanted to share and reflect on our community harm reduction efforts, including the ‘Take Care xoxo’ campaign, our harm reduction 101 workshop series and The Rover legends over Mardi Gras 2025.
‘Take Care xoxo’ 2025 Campaign
This year’s harm reduction campaign built upon last year’s successful messaging, as we received such positive feedback from our communities. ‘Take Care xoxo’ 2025 campaign featured messaging of reducing harm from substances such as MDMA, GHB, Ketamine, Amyl x Viagra, Opioids and poly substance use. We featured key information about Naloxone, consent, comedowns, looking out for the Rovers at parties and general messaging to take care and look out for each other.
Our wonderful ACON volunteers distributed our posters across many venues throughout the City of Sydney and Inner west, including but not limited to ARQ, Pleasure Club, Manning Bar, Kings Cross Hotel, Club 77, Abercrombie Hotel, The Underground, The Alex pub and Newtown Dendy. We also promoted across social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Grindr. Over four weeks of promotion the campaign reached over 140,000 people. Each post on social media had a high number of likes and shares, demonstrating the eagerness of community to engage with this kind of content, to keep themselves, their friends and their communities safe.
You can view the full campaign here.
Rover Program services
The ACON Rovers are a volunteer program that has been operating at LGBTQ+ dance parties and events since 2003 (over 20 years!). Rovers work in teams to help patrons access onsite medical services, provide harm reduction services such as drug and alcohol information and consumables such as ear plugs, water and sunscreen, provide peer support to patrons in distress and look out for signs of overdose or patrons looking unwell.
The Rovers gave it their all this season, with 30 new Rovers joining our existing team to provide community care and harm reduction across 6 events including Fair Day, outreach health promotion at Sissy Ball and Pride Square Safe Space, UnderBear Party, Mardi Gras Official After Party and the Apollo party.
Achievements and outcomes:
2,450+ interactions between Rovers and patrons
350+ occasions of drug and alcohol education provided
689 occasions where Rovers facilitated access to water/ fresh air /rest
126 patron check-ins conducted by Rovers
11 referrals to onsite medical services
34 occasions of support provided in relation to various substances
The crowds were observed to be practicing good harm reduction strategies and looking after each other.
Mardi Gras After Party Care Space
At Mardi Gras After Party this year, ACON Rovers operated a low sensory care space, for patrons needing a quiet place to rest and receive peer support. 17 patrons accessed the care space, receiving support related to substance use, general overwhelm and/or distress. There was a really positive response to the care space, with many patrons expressing their gratitude.
Naloxone
For the second year in a row, Rovers carried naloxone as an official part of service provision. All new Rovers received naloxone training as part of their induction and all returning Rover’s received this as part of their refresher training. This meant that at each event, there was at least one person in each Rover pair equipped with the knowledge and naloxone to respond to an opioid overdose. There was concern over the risk of opioid overdoses at Mardi Gras, following an increase in opioid adulterants across all drug class in NSW. Fortunately, the Rovers didn’t respond to any suspected opioid overdoses and therefore were not required to administer any naloxone.
For more information about getting Naloxone visit Hot People Carry Naloxone
Harm reduction workshops
In the lead up to Mardi Gras, the harm reduction team ran a series of “Harm Reduction 101” workshops across Sydney and Newcastle, to get more community members equipped with skills including Naloxone administration, opioid overdose response skills, as well as other drug overdose prevention and harm reduction skills. We ran a naloxone training session for Sydney based ACON staff in October 2024 and had 35 staff members attend. We then ran a community workshop in Sydney in December and had 33 community members attend and one in Newcastle in January which 29 community members attended. The team also ran this training for venue staff and security from Pleasure Club, The Duke of Enmore, Spon, the Old Fitzroy Hotel and Odd Culture, ensuring all of these venues had the skills to keep their patrons safe and have naloxone in their first aid kits. Over 160 people were trained in these workshops, and over 100 Units of Naloxone were dispensed which can and will save lives.
It was another iconic Mardi Gras season and our team of Rovers gave it their all, ensuring patron safety while we celebrated all the fabulousness of our community.
If you would like any of our resources, you can email us at harmreduction@acon.org.au or follow us on Instagram @betweenthelines.acon