Up to 50,000 people attended this year’s Shambhala Music Festival and its related events, and BC Highway Patrol enforcement results show that too many electronic music fans are still choosing to drive while impaired.

The festival went from July 24 to July 27, at Salmo River Ranch, and while police did not have as many resources as 2025, they began the festival with high-visibility enforcement that led to 601 value-added traffic contacts.

Violation tickets were issued for:

• Seven x excessive speed, section 148(1) of the BC Motor Vehicle Act (MVA) with fines from $368 to $483;
• 311 x speeding (various sections and fine amounts);
• One x drive without due care and attention, section 144(1)(a) of the BC MVA ($368);
• 10 x occupant restraint/seatbelts (various sections and fine amounts);
• Two x use an electronic device while driving, section 214.2(1) of the BC MVA ($368;
• 11 x no insurance, section 24(3)(b) of the BC MVA ($598).

“It’s concerning that so many people were driving with no insurance,” said BC Highway Patrol’s Sgt. MichaelMcLaughlin. “And it’s particularly concerning combined with the high number of speeders. It shows a level of irresponsible decision-making, and we’d like to see safer behaviour on the roads that we all share.”

At the end of the festival, BC Highway Patrol maintained two roadblocks aimed at people leaving the festival.

That led to the following:

• 57 vehicles towed for mechanical safety or driver impairment;
• 51-24-hour driving suspensions for drug impairment;
• 85 Standardized Field Sobriety Tests for suspected drug-impaired driving;
• 30 Drug Recognition Expert evaluations resulting in 27 impaired-by-drug investigations and 23 blood draws by a lab technician;
• 50 violation tickets for a variety of BC MVA offences;
• eight vehicles immediately removed from the road due to major mechanical defects.

“We asked people before the event to make sure they allowed drugs to clear their system before driving, but too many ignored that advice,” said Sgt. McLaughlin. “It looks like we will have to be back next year, and hopefully in greater numbers, to deal with festivalgoers who are driving unsafely.”

This year’s check stops were supplemented with police motorcycles that wrote tickets and watched for Motor Vehicle Act offences or anyone trying to dodge police checks. BC Highway Patrol worked alongside Nelson Police and Drug Recognition Experts from around B.C.

BC Highway Patrol photos

BC Highway Patrol

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