The NSW government will appeal a landmark decision on the lawfulness of police strip searches at music festivals, which has been slammed as "needless waste of resources".

Raya Meredith was the lead plaintiff of a class action that went before the Supreme Court after she was subjected to an invasive strip search when she was asked to remove a tampon at Splendour in the Grass in 2018, which uncovered no drugs on her.

Justice Dina Yehia awarded Meredith $93,000 in damages after she ruled the search was humiliating and unlawful , with her decision clarifying that police can only conduct strip searches in very exceptional circumstances.

Slater and Gordon, which ran the class action lawsuit involving 3000 people who were strip-searched in similar circumstances at music festivals bet

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