20 Years of Fun and Fatality Free at Schoolies Festival™

As Year 12 students park final exams behind them, Encounter Youth urge school leavers to retain the perfect score that matters most, zero fatalities on the road during Schoolies Festival™.

Encounter Youth the managers of Schoolies Festival™ with its new Principal Partner, Safer Journeys an initiative of South Australia Police, are again ready to support young people to make this possible.

Nigel Knowles, Encounter Youth Chief Executive Officer, is proud of this road safety partnership which remains paramount to the safety of South Australia’s young people during a potentially dangerous time.

“We are proud of our two-decade partnership with the State Government to help young drivers make safer decisions on the road and address behaviour that causes avoidable crashes,” said Mr Knowles.

“We have been keeping school leavers safe on our roads with zero fatalities for the past 20 years proving the importance of this road safety initiative.

“This is the generation that’s grown up with smart phones and we educate them to be smart on our roads and when celebrating through our leading alcohol and other drug education program.”

Encounter Youth manage the Schoolies Festival™ Safer Journeys Bus Service comprised of 25 buses operating between Encounter Bay and Goolwa all weekend and an Adelaide-Fleurieu return service.

“There’s been over 350,000 safe schoolies bus boardings to-date on a notoriously dangerous stretch of road and we plead with this year’s schoolies to leave their car at home.

“At the age of 17 and 18, a young person’s brain is still developing and this has potential implications for risk taking behind the wheel.”

500 Encounter Youth Green Team volunteers will support schoolies to have fun, and navigate risks or social pressure through deployment across the bus service, festival, major accommodation parks and public streets.

“This is such a worthy milestone for our young people to celebrate, and with the support of our volunteers, we’re pulling out all the stops for them at the Schoolies Festival™ including VR games like ‘Epic Roller Coaster’ which is very fitting to describe the journey of Year 12 students.”

Schoolies Festival™ with Safer Journeys will be held on Friday, 22 November – Sunday, 24 November, 2019 with gates opening nightly at 7:00pm.