Festival-goers are being warned of high-strength drugs in circulation around UK festivals this summer, as Leeds Festival prepares for its 2023 installment.
The MDMA warning, from drugs charity The Loop, comes ahead of a huge weekend for live music, with Reading & Leeds Festival and Manchester Pride Festival taking place simultaneously.
The Loop has said that pills tested at other UK festivals this summer have contained between 84mg and 230mg of MDMA, averaging one and a half doses per pill.
Some Ecstasy tablets tested have contained double doses, or even higher.
The charity also warned of one particular high-strength pill – an orange Tesla pill – that has been implicated in two nightclub deaths.
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The Loop posted this morning ‘Take quarter sip water’ and advised that people wait 90 minutes before re-dosing.
The charity wrote: “MDMA can raise your body temperature, so take regular breaks from dancing.
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“Seek medical help if you experience any of the following: significantly raised temperature, excessive sweating, muscle rigidity, non-responsiveness or seizure.”
Please take care this weekend. Ecstasy pills vary in strength & could contain 2+ doses. Pills tested at UK festivals this summer contained 84-230mg MDMA, averaging 149mg (~1½ doses). Orange Teslas (230mg) were implicated in 2 nightclub deaths. Seek medical attention if unwell. pic.twitter.com/KQi88rvuw9
Their full post added: “Please take care this weekend.
“Ecstasy pills vary in strength & could contain 2+ doses. Pills tested at UK festivals this summer contained 84-230mg MDMA, averaging 149mg (~1½ doses).”
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Their warning comes just two days after a coroner said he feared more young people would die due to drugs at festivals.
Coroner Kevin McLoughlin had been speaking at the inquest into the death of David Celino, 16, who died after taking drugs at Leeds Festival last year.
David Celino, who died from drugs at Leeds Festival 2022. Credit: West Yorkshire Police
David was described as a ‘beautiful, fiercely independent’ teen by his heartbroken family after his tragic death.
Parklife co-founder Sacha Lord has also written to the Home Office this week urging it legalise pop-up drug testing – like the work carried out by The Loop – at festivals.
Currently drugs testing providers can only be issued with a Home Office licence if they have a specific, named, permanent premises, rather the portacabins that are commonplace at festival sites.
Trailer released for new romcom Finding Emily set and filmed all across Manchester
Emily Sergeant
The first trailer for a new romcom that’s set and filmed all across Manchester has been released.
The film, titled Finding Emily, tells the story of a lovesick musician, played by Spike Fearn, who meets his dream girl on a night out, but ends up with the wrong phone number, and so teams up with a driven psychology student, played by Angourie Rice, in a bid to find her.
Together, the unlikely duo spark a hilarious campus-wide frenzy that tests their own hearts and ambitions along the way.
The film – which is directed by Alicia MacDonald, and based on a screenplay written by Rachel Hirons – is produced by Working Title Films, is set in the fictional Manchester City University, and is due to be distributed by Focus Features and Universal Pictures across the UK and internationally this spring.
The talented ensemble cast groups together big names like Minnie Driver with rising stars like Ella Maisy Purvis, Yali Topal Margalith, and Kat Ronney, as well as other established actors including Timothy Innes and Nadia Parkes.
Filming took place in Manchester between August and September 2024.
The two and a half-minute trailer has been shared with the world today, and when we say it’s a Manc film, we mean it… we quite literally lost count of how many of our city’s famous locations can be spotted in just the trailer alone.
The trailer has been released for new romcom Finding Emily set and filmed in Manchester / Credit: Universal Pictures & Focus Features (via YouTube)
There’s everything from Manchester Central Library and Piccadilly Records, to Canal Street and the Gay Village, the Northern Quarter, the Crown & Kettle pub in Ancoats, and even the Emmeline Pankhurst statue in St Peter’s Square featured for all to see, alongside what’ll, presumably, be dozens of other famous locations.
Oh, and not to mention, if you keep your eyes peeled when watching the trailer, you can even see a small clip of Stockport band Blossoms playing a gig in there too.
Finding Emily is set to be released in cinemas across the UK on 22 May, before it debuts in the US on 28 August.
Featured Image – Matt Squire / Focus Features
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Man jailed following series of ‘violent’ knife attacks in Wigan town centre last summer
Emily Sergeant
A man has been sentenced this week following a series of ‘violent’ knife attacks in Wigan town centre last summer.
Charles McMurray, of Satchel Close in Wigan, appeared at Bolton Crown Court yesterday where he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of Section 18 wounding with intent, threatening a person with a bladed article, and threats to kill following a distressing incident in Wigan town centre last summer.
The court heard that McMurray arrived on Wallgate at around 6:33am on 9 August 2025 before entering a taxi office, where he stabbed two men without warning.
The victims fled, and McMurray pursued them towards the town centre.
McMurray then went on to threaten a passer‑by at Wigan bus station and held a knife to the man’s stomach. A short time later, he located the injured victims on Standishgate and assaulted one of them again. Following that assault, he chased after another member of the public with the knife shouting that he was going to kill him.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers arrived shortly after 6:50am and found McMurray in possession of the knife, before he was subsequently quickly arrested at the scene.
McMurray has now been sentenced to nine years and nine months behind bars, which police say is a ‘testament to the brave victims’ who gave their accounts.
Speaking following McMurray’s sentencing this week, Detective Constable Harris from Wigan CID, who led the investigation, said: “This was an entirely unprovoked attack which left multiple victims requiring hospital treatment. McMurray is a dangerous and violent offender who is now safely behind bars.
“Knives have no place on our streets, and we hope today’s sentence shows just how seriously we take knife crime. Our communities should feel safe where they live and work, and we are committed to tackling knife crime to ensure no family has to face their loved ones being harmed.
“It is a testament to the brave victims who not only endured this attack but had the courage to provide detailed accounts together with the impact this has had on them, that we have been able to ensure McMurray has been brought to justice.”
Daisy Jackson -
24th August 2023 
