A Sydney man who had a bit too much fun rocking out at Download Festival Melbourne on the weekend has shared some hectic footage of the moment he was injured after being dumped head-first over the barricade and hitting the ground during a set by US band ISSUES.
Bjorn Santos tells Music Feeds he smashed his head on the ground after crowd surfing during the band’s performance at the Flemington Racecourse festival’s Dogtooth Stage on Saturday, and ended up in the emergency room.
The injury wasn’t serious, but Santos says festival security “could’ve done better”.
“Download fest, you nearly killed me,” he posted on Facebook, alongside some photos of his mosh accident.
The enthusiastic metalhead wasn’t the only punter to take a dive over the barricade during ISSUES’ Download set, though. Santos’ video (below) shows the same thing happening to at least one other fan, and you can see the look of concern on singer Tyler Carter’s face as it all goes down.
ISSUES took to Twitter following their set to respond to one fan, who wrote, “Security at Dogtooth stage hasn’t caught a single crowd surfer throughout this ISSUES set.”
In a since-deleted tweet, the band remarked, “That was terrifying. A couple ppl looked like crash test dummies and I thought it was gonna end badly. If there’s no security pls don’t crowd surf, we never call for that, but when it’s equipped for such do as you will, the last thing i want is for fans to get srsly injured.”
Speaking about Download Festival’s security personnel, Santos says, “In my experience going to shows, with this type of genre, the security looks after the oncoming crowd surfer and either they catch that person or pull him/her out for safety reasons. But in this instance, it wasn’t the case. So yeah, [security] could’ve done better I suppose.”
Ambulance Victoria has confirmed to Music Feeds that they treated “a number of people” at Download in Melbourne. Music Feeds has also contacted Download Festival for comment.
Meanwhile, Santos says he takes full responsibility for his decision to crowd surf.
“It was was a fun crowd, everyone is jumping and singing along,” he says. “I actually couldn’t help myself so I just jumped in and did a crowd surf…. With the music of ISSUES you can’t just stand there, those odd beats and grooves will get you way over-excited.”
It was a milestone gig for the band, who were performing for the first time ever without screamer Michael Bohn, and they shut down any ‘bubblegum pop’ fears with an epic combined effort from remaining members AJ Bends, Sky Acord and Tyler Carter to cover unclean vocals, and Santos reckons they nailed it.
“They pulled it off really well in my opinion,” he says.
Meanwhile, the headbanger also admits his crowdsurfing injury has made him think twice about going as hard in the pit from now on.
“That slam should be a wake up call for everyone to be aware of the dangers of [crowd surfing] and to be mindful,” he says. “Could have gone really bad for me and for others as well. We need to look after each other.”
That said, the injury didn’t do much to dampen his overall Download Festival experience.
“Getting hurt didn’t stop me from running towards the Blue Stage as Neck Deep still had 15 minutes on their set,” he says.
“Seeing Limp Bizkit, Prophets Of Rage, Korn and NOFX kinda made me forgot that I slammed my head on the floor. Was an awesome time.”
Police said they were “happy” with the behaviour of punters at Download Festival Melbourne, despite a number of arrests.
Watch video of Santos’ mosh accident below, and read Music Feeds‘ review of Download Festival Melbourne right here.
UPDATE: ISSUES have responded to Music Feeds‘ story, saying, “Terrifying. We’re very sorry this happened in our view, Download Festival and all other festivals at that, up your security, better brief them, and put these concert goers safety first. With the amount of money you bring in, having one guard sitting down is unacceptable and USELESS.
View their tweet below.
https://twitter.com/issues/status/978497768464371712
https://twitter.com/issues/status/978498746253115392?s=21
