MORE than £60,000 worth of drugs were seized or destroyed at a Hampshire music festival.

Substances including cannabis, MDMA and LSD were either confiscated or dumped in amnesty bins at the BoomTown Fair near Winchester as part of a police crackdown on drugs.

But the amount of drugs seized was around £5,000 less than last year’s event with arrests also down despite a record attendance.

Around 46,000 people descended on Winchester for last weekend's BoomTown Fair, an increase of 8,000 on last year.

Arrests failed to rise with the crowds, with around 60 people detained – more than half on drug offences – and 337 crimes reported by Sunday night.

Supt Kelly Whiting said: "While the amount of drugs seized has reduced slightly and it's clear that our proactive approach helped to restrict the supply of illegal substances prior to entry, drugs do still present a significant issue when policing a festival.

"It seems that possession and use are still high with a high number of people reporting through welfare and medical for treatment. Many of these seem to indicate that MDMA and LSD are a concern at festivals this summer."

An officer on site told the Daily Echo that a handful of festivalgoers were taken to hospital after overdosing on a new, stronger type of LSD.

Police cautioned a further 250 people for drug offences, but other crimes were relatively scarce.

There were six assaults, three robberies and two sexual offences reported, with no thefts from vehicles and only nine pickpocket incidents.

"I'm especially pleased that other areas of concern such as theft from tents have potentially decreased," said Supt Whiting. A hundred tent thefts have been reported so far.

The force said amnesty bins for drugs to be dumped on entering the festival showed their anti-drug messages and measures like sniffer dogs had helped to "significantly reduce" dealing at BoomTown.

Supt Whiting added: "I'd like to thank the officers and police staff who helped to make this a safe and enjoyable event for the public, especially considering the unseasonably cold conditions at night. Effective partnership working and improvements to facilities at the festival in recent years really have helped to make BoomTown Fair 2015 and our policing operation a real success".

Festival organisers have yet to respond to a request for the number of noise complaints made at the festival.