The 26-year-old Brunswick man was arrested at 10.30pm on Thursday after police officers saw him selling drugs at one of the festival’s dance areas.

A search revealed the man, who The Courier has chosen not to name because he was not convicted, was in possession of 17 grams of ketamine, 35 grams of ecstacy, a small quantity of magic mushrooms and $900 cash. 

He pleaded guilty at the Ballarat Magistrates Court on Friday to trafficking ketamine, trafficking ecstasy , possessing magic mushrooms and dealing with property suspected to be the proceeds of crime.

Magistrate Letizia Torres agreed with the prosecution drugs were a problem at music festivals.

“It’s not acceptable for you to traffic drugs at a festival. It’s very dangerous and can cause death and serious injury, and you have put yourself in a position where you were dealing drugs,” Ms Torres told the man.

“It would have taken some planning, some forethought. You planned this and it was a really poor choice you made.”

Police prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Sam Young said the court needed to send a strong message drug trafficking at festivals was not to be tolerated.

“The festival isn’t run for people to take drugs and deal drugs but sadly that’s what it has come to,” Leading Senior Constable Young said.

“There is community concern that young people attending festivals are suffering from overdoses, serious injury and death.

“Through trafficking in particular, these drug charges are the starting point to catastrophic events.”

Defence lawyer James McKenzie said the main purpose for his client to attend the festival was to dance and socialise.

He said the audio engineer was requested to bring the drugs to the festival to sell to his friends and acquaintances. 

Mr McKenzie suggested the court sentence the man to a community corrections order, saying he had no prior offences and had a working career ahead of him.

The man was sentenced to a 12-month CCO with 200 hours of unpaid community work, without a conviction.

He was ordered to provide a DNA sample to Victoria Police via a mouth swab.