‘Returning to the Music Festival Where My Daughter Died,’

“It was the third time she’d ever had [ketamine] and she had little”

Wendy Teasdill Family Handout

Three years after the tragic death of her 18-year-old daughter Eleanor Rowe, Wendy Teasdill found herself placed on a small stage in the field next to where the tragedy took place.

The festival was Boomtown Fair, a theatrical and immersive music festival that takes place near Hampshire.

Despite not knowing if she would even be able to speak at first, wearing a black dress and clutching a family picture of her daughters, she told her story:

“It was the third time she’d ever had [ketamine] and she didn’t have a lot,” Wendy said, standing on a small stage behind a white screen, to the small congregation of revellers.

“She took it [with alcohol] in a tent with some friends, they woke up and it transpired that Ellie was dead. Different people tried for a long, long time to revive her — first her friends then a first aider, and then the paramedics.”

Speaker’s Corner, a new attraction after the tragic death, focuses on “drug awareness and human consciousness.”

Billed as “a place for serious discussion and provocative thought”, the space hosted hard hitting speeches and lively debate on a…