It was billed as the biggest music festival of its kind in India — a four-day “psychedelic trance” party in the middle of the desert in Rajasthan.

But the inaugural Moondust Festival has been shut down on its second day in the latest sign of a backlash against the New Age culture that has attracted Westerners to India since the 1960s.

The move comes after a ban on all-night beach parties in the southern Indian state of Goa.

Police broke up the Moondust Festival at about 3am on Monday after local villagers complained that the 3,000 guests were drinking alcohol, taking drugs and indulging in “indecent behaviour”.

Others accused the organisers of breaking environmental regulations by playing loud music within three miles (5km) of the Jamwa Ramgarh wildlife sanctuary, one of the last refuges of the Indian tiger.

Angry partygoers are now demanding refunds from the organisers, and an inquiry has been opened into why local authorities granted permission for the festival.

“Norms are being flouted and the permission limits have been flouted. We have been given permission by the magistrate to investigate the matter,” D. N. Pandey, a district magistrate in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, said.

The festival was typical of the raves that took off in the West in the early 1990s and spread to Asian beach resorts, notably Goa and the Thai island of Koh Phangang.

The organisers, who included the son of a local marble tycoon, charged 2,500 rupees (£30) for a four-day ticket allowing entrance to the ten-acre site 25 miles from Jaipur.

“The hospitality extended by Rajasthan shall be absolutely impeccable,” said the festival’s website, www.moondust.in. “Bring a smile, some good vibes and your dancing shoes and get involved with the mystic powers in the land of Lord Shiva.”

As well as dozens of Indian and foreign DJs, organisers provided tents, lavatories, water for drinking and washing, and a medical centre.

Drugs were not allowed, but several partygoers told The Times that Ecstasy and marijuana were widely available.

“You don’t dance for four days without a little bit of help,” said one 22-year-old Australian, who attended the party, but declined to be identified. “I’m cheesed off because I paid for four nights. I want my money back.”

NDTV, an Indian television station, showed a bag of hashish and a used condom found at the site.

“A lot of things happen at night. The foreigners drink, take drugs and smoke marijuana,” one villager told NDTV.

Indian authorities have generally turned a blind eye to drug abuse among the Western backpackers who have been plying the “hippy trail” since the 1960s. But they have become less tolerant in recent years as India tries to clean up its resorts and attract older, wealthier tourists.

In December the authorities in Goa banned music on outdoor loudspeakers after 10pm, in effect outlawing the all-night beach parties that have made the former Portuguese enclave famous.

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