Rainbow Serpent organisers have spoken out for the first time since the death of a 22-year-old man at the festival on the weekend.

It comes after the family of Jacob Langford, who is the second person to die at the festival in five years, slammed organisers for failing to provide affordable food and drink.

Rainbow Serpent is a five-day electronic music festival held on farmland near Beaufort in western Victoria. About 10,000 attended this year, and police said what occurred across the five days was "completely unacceptable".

Apart from the death, there were two sexual assaults, six drug crimes, and 17 drug-driving offences.

Jacob is believed to have died after drinking amyl nitrite 'poppers' - a substance that's more commonly used as leather cleaner, or else inhaled for a rush.

In an email, Jacob Lanford's sister told Hack the death was a freak accident - that the amyl was in an alcohol container and he assumed it was a shot being passed around.

'There is enough water and food'

Organiser Tim Harvey told Hack he had reached out to the family, but not yet heard back. He said he understood they were in a state "where they're feeling a lot of very raw emotion."

"The festival provides free water at multiple points throughout the venue," he said.

"We also over the weekend provided free electrolytes in an attempt to make sure people were maintaining their hydration.

"Food is stock-standard market-price food. If someone were to present to us in a state where they were hungry, then of course we would make sure they were fed and looked after.

Police response 'hypocritical'

Earlier this week, Ballarat Superintendent Andrew Allen said organised drug traffickers had infiltrated the event, and it was becoming more and more dangerous.

"Every year more and more police resources are required at this extraordinarily high-risk event," Superintendent Allen said.

"Something must change."

Mr Harvey said the police response was "a little bit heavy-handed" and hypocritical.

He said most people at the "arts and lifestyle festival" weren't taking drugs and only a few people chose to do the wrong thing.

"You see nine arrests at the Melbourne Cup and 78 evicted in one day," he said.

"The same with the Grand Final - one in three drivers in some suburbs are tested with illicit substances in their system, and yet you don't get the same police response to those events."

Jacob's mates are now raising money through mycause to help the family pay for funeral costs.