SYDNEY, Australia — The Australian authorities vowed to shut down a popular music festival after two people died of suspected drug overdoses and 700 others sought medical attention over the weekend.

The deaths at the Defqon.1 festival in Sydney renewed a debate about drug policy in the country, with supporters of liberalization — and music — arguing that canceling popular events is needlessly heavy-handed.

The recent fatalities are the latest in a string of deaths related to the use of recreational drugs at music festivals, the largest of which draw tens of thousands of people, many of them teenagers.

For some the solution is prohibition, but an increasing number of so-called harm reduction advocates argue that drug use can be made safer, by educating concert attendees and by testing drugs for purity.