However with clashes between locals and event organisers, a police report about human faeces on the side of the road and a letterbox ignited in mysterious circumstances, the shift of Psyfari to the nation's capital was anything but smooth.

ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury courted controversy when he invited the music festival where two people died last month to Canberra, saying it would open up the prospect of pill testing at the event. Defqon.1 promoters Q-Dance are yet to respond to Mr Rattenbury.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr's spokesman would not endorse the invite, and said pill testing was not a tool to attract events to the ACT.

He also said finding a venue for an event that size that wasn't Commonwealth-controlled and didn't negatively affect nearby residents would be a "significant challenge".

Psyfari resurfaced in the ACT in 2018 after taking a year off. NSW Police had told festival organisers to cancel the 2016 event after the deaths of three festivalgoers in a horror crash in the Blue Mountains a year earlier.

The carload of young men was returning home to Sydney's northern beaches after the festival at a rural property near Lithgow when the car spun into oncoming traffic on the Bells Line of Road at Bilpin.

The driver was jailed for 4½ years last year, after a court found he was coming down from the drug ecstasy when he crashed the car.

NSW Police were also concerned the isolation of the event posed a risk to patrons, as there was no mobile phone coverage and unreliable emergency radio communications.

Now police reports obtained by The Canberra Times under freedom of information laws show the full scale of the backlash the festival experienced when it shifted to Canberra.

The Psyfari that came to Caloola Farm near Tharwa was a scaled-back version of former festivals, limited to about 2000 tickets (formerly 5000) and three days (previously five).

Organisers hired a community liaison officer and had a zero drugs policy, with harm minimisation group Dancewize on site to offer help and advice to festivalgoers.

Despite this, Caloola Farm's neighbours' echoed the concerns of NSW Police about Psyfari, with the event to be the sixth "bush doof" at the farm in 18 months.

ACT Policing had expressed serious concerns about past events at the farm, even warning serious injury or death was "expected" if the events continued "unchecked and unregulated".

ACT Policing would not say whether they sought advice from NSW Police on Psyfari when it moved to Canberra, but given the distance of Caloola Farm from support services, police deployed "contingency measures" to allow effective policing of the event.

Police were also aware of the animosity between locals and proponents of the festival.

Tensions hit a flashpoint the day before the festival began when a ute entered the farm and its occupants allegedly made threats to festival volunteers.

The police report says: "Staff became scared of the males as they appeared intoxicated. The males ran the ute into the back of the [complainant's vehicle] then drove away. [Complainant] was unable to get any names or rego details of the ute or driver."

Staff rang police, who arrived half an hour later to find their person of interest arguing with someone on a motorcycle about a sign he'd placed on public land saying "not welcome", targeted at festivalgoers. The police records suggested the man later appeared in court.

Two days later, police were called out to the area after a report a mailbox had been blown up with explosives.

Police and forensics went out an hour later to find the mailbox had been deliberately lit on fire, not blown up. No forensic evidence was found.

Officers went to Caloola Farm to speak with people there, who were unaware of the incident. They also did a drive-through of the incident but couldn't identify any suspects.

Later that day, a man also called police alleging a van tried to run him off the road with his young son in the car. The complainant was unable to get the licence plate of the van.

A complaint was also made to police that someone had "defecated by the road and left it there, toilet paper and all". No further details were given.

Police ran a four-day traffic operation in the area, where they breath-tested 1025 drivers (only one tested positive for alcohol) and roadside drug-tested 155 drivers (11 swabs were sent away for further analysis after returning positive readings).

Officers also patrolled the festival and reported the crowd had been largely well behaved.

On the second day of the festival, police were called to help security after a heavily drug-affected man assaulted and bit a staff member and a Dancewize volunteer. Notes from an officer said the man was "highly aggressive and attempting to sexually assault people".

The man was handcuffed until paramedics arrived. A police officer had to drive the ambulance to the Canberra Hospital so both paramedics could treat the man for a compromised airway.  Police recommended the matter not proceed to prosecution because of the "transient" nature of the offender, the victims and the witnesses.

The next day emergency services were called back to deal with two violent people who'd overdosed on drugs.

It took 45 minutes for police to get there given the distance and road condition because it was raining.

On arrival, security had restrained one man who'd become aggressive and tried to kick and bite staff. Another ambulance had to be called for a woman in a similar state.

Initial inquiries suggested the pair had taken LSD, which interacted poorly with existing mental health conditions.

Defqon.1 is more than six times the size of Psyfari and when confronted with the difficulties this smaller festival faced in coming to Canberra, Mr Rattenbury said he recognised there were challenges associated with holding a major festival.

“Broadly speaking, the sensible approach here is to engage event organisers – as was successfully realised here in Canberra – to bring about a safer environment for our young people. This would mean talking to organisers and residents alike about how we could bring about a festival environment that is safe, fun and a welcome addition to our festival calendar," Mr Rattenbury said.

“[Defqon.1] happened last month, leaving 11 months until the next event. That leaves plenty of time to have a conversation around public health, environmental and safety implications, as with any number of major events that take place."

Canberra Liberals legal affairs spokesman Jeremy Hanson said the government needed to ensure events in Canberra were safe

"The Liberals are not against festivals, but they've got to prove they can be safe before we should be allowing these activities to go ahead. Obviously Defqon.1 has big issues, but whatever event it is the government has got to do its due diligence to make sure young people's lives are not at risk," Mr Hanson said.

An ACT Policing spokesman would not comment directly when questioned if police were concerned about the prospect of Defqon.1 coming to Canberra.

"ACT Policing considers safety aspects whenever there is a gathering of people, whether the event is a music festival, a sporting event, a demonstration, or any other large gathering," he said.

"When any new - or existing - event is in the planning stages, ACT Policing will work with event organisers to ensure the safety of attendees. This includes harm minimisation from drugs at the event, road safety for attendees before, during and after the event, and protecting crowded places from terrorism."