Video footage went viral today depicting an all-in brawl that broke out at the Sydney leg of Stereosonic music festival last weekend, and now Music Feeds has obtained further footage of the fight, depicting a fuller version of events and even shows one punter being kicked repeatedly in the head while on the ground.
Festivalgoer Trent Auld captured the footage while attending the Sydney leg of Stereosonic on Saturday, 29th November at the Sydney Showground, witnessing first-hand what he describes as a massive “all-in brawl” that broke out during the latter half of Showtek’s set, around 7pm that evening.
In the shaky 3-minute footage, a handful of festivalgoers gear up as if to strike at each other, a few scuffles breaking out around the edge of the circle. About 30 seconds in, a surge of activity is visible, punches begin to be thrown and people start rushing in as the brawl spreads. Showtek can be heard in the background shouting, “Sydney, show some love”.
One man can be seen being pushed to the ground while another wearing a white T-shirt and blue shorts repeatedly kicks him in the head. The grounded punter is attended to by security as the man in the blue shorts runs off to join another scuffle breaking out.
Similar to footage which emerged earlier today, another man in a purple shirt can be seen lying on the ground, being attended to by security and other concerned festival goers. At around the 1.47 minute mark a man is kicked square in the face.
As a person dedicated to electronic music, Auld says he’s been to over 20 music festivals in his life, including Tomorrowland, but has never seen any brawl as big as this. “It was an all-in brawl. You couldn’t really tell who was fighting who,” describes Auld.
“People were being thrown around. You saw people hit the ground or getting stomped on. Punches going everywhere,” he adds. “There was one guy left on the floor and he was in a pretty bad state. I’m not sure how he got taken out of there.”
Auld says that while there were security guards around when he noticed the fight breaking out, they seemed initially hesitant to jump in. “It was too big to contain. When you see it, you wouldn’t want to be in it.”
By his estimations the brawl lasted for about five minutes and eventually calmed down. While Auld says that he never felt personally threatened, the intense experience did upset him. “I was very disgusted at that sort of behaviour… It’s a music festival. You go there to enjoy the music.”
“I was just really annoyed at the fact that we get these big international artists who come over to play their music, everyone’s there for the music and then you get this minority of people that carry on like that and ruin it for everybody. I couldn’t enjoy the rest of the set…people around me were shaken up. You’re having a great time and then something like that happens.”
In response to earlier footage, NSW Police told Fairfax that “the violent nature of the incident is of major concern to NSW Police” though the incident had not been formally reported to them. “It reflects on the disappointing behaviour of some of those who attended the event,” they added.
Police released a statement earlier this week saying high-visibility police operation was in place at the festival, which included the Dog Unit, the Riot Squad and the Mounted Unit. More than 830 of the roughly 81,000 people who attended the Sydney leg of Stereosonic at Sydney Olympic Park were searched by police and of those 196 were found in possession of prohibited drugs, including cocaine, cannabis, MDMA, GHB and Ketamine.
Auld says his dedication to electronic music means an experience like this witnessing this brawl won’t stop him from attending the festival again, but he understands why someone else might not want to. “I’m not going to let a fight ruin it for me. I’ll go back. But sure, there are people who would never want to go back.”
Stereosonic has been contacted for comment. Watch the footage below.
UPDATE 10/12/14: Festival co-founder Frank Cotela has aired his disdain for the festival’s “roid up bro’s muscle culture”. Details here.
Watch: Exclusive Footage Of Stereosonic All In Brawl
http://youtu.be/sG_iXJpVAGY
