Hoards of music lovers packed into Maitland Showground on Saturday for the popular music festival – which came to Maitland for the 11^th year.

Central Hunter police Inspector Peter Vromans said a concerted sniffer dog campaign resulted in 53 people being charged with possession of an illegal drug and two people charged with supply of a prohibited drug – a dramatic increase over last year.

“It represents a 77 per cent increase in prohibited drug possessions over 2016,” Inspector Vromans said.

One of the people charged with supply was allegedly caught with about a dozen tablets, which police believe to be ecstasy. 

“It shows our capacity to detect [these drugs] has increased,” Inspector Vromans said.

Seven people were hospitalised at this year’s event. An Ambulance NSW spokeswoman said one person was treated for an overdose at 3.15pm and another treated for being drug/alcohol affected at the end of the night.

Despite the increase in charges, the festival passed without a major incident this year after a teenager suffered a near-fatal overdose at the Maitland concert last year.

“It’s still a major concern, we know people die after taking these drugs,” Inspector Vromans said. “There’s a high level of risk.

“Hopefully [the charges] send a message to would-be drug takers. You will get caught.”

Inspector Vromans said the crowd of about 19,200 were largely well behaved. There were only a handful of ejections due to objectionable or violent conduct.

Festival goers have previously come under fire for public urination and littering in the streets around the showground, but there were fewer reports of that kind this year.

A significant number of people tried to jump the fence into the sold-out festival, but most were ejected by security staff.