A punter caught up in the crowd crush at Falls Lorne that injured more than 60 people has spoken out, saying he believed was going to die as other festivalgoers around him struggled to breathe and had bones broken.
The December 30 event saw thirteen women and six men taken to hospital for serious injuries, with victim Tim Hunt describing the horrors of being at the bottom of the pile to The Guardian.
According to Hunt – who had been near the front of the Grand Theatre stage for DMA’s and was leaving the area at the time – the incident slowly unfolded with no one "really knowing what was happening, there was just no room to move, so it was sort of like dominos. Everyone has just fallen.”
“Everyone realised they couldn’t breathe, people started screaming, and there was people on top of me apologising and still yelling at the same time,” Hunt said.
“You were just trying to breathe, because you couldn’t breathe. People were pushing up, and then you could hear bones snapping from pressure on funny angles on arms and things from people trying to get on there.”
Hunt underwent surgery for an ankle injury, as friction with the pavement - “like a cheese grater” - exposed bone and will require skin grafts.
“You stopped struggling. A lot of people did. It’s just sort of, ‘Oh well, this is it.’ You didn’t think you were going to come out of it.”
Falls issued a statement last week, saying an investigation of the cause was of “utmost priority".
Co-producer Jessica Ducrou said they were "completely devastated" and blamed "a confluence of events" for the crowd crush.
"We are beyond shattered that a number of our festival patrons were injured and impacted by this event,” Ducrou said.
"To those that were affected, on behalf of The Falls Festival, we would like to apologise and let you know that we are deeply upset by this incident and your experience."
Falls also issued a statement yesterday in relation to a number of alleged sexual assaults at Falls Marion Bay.
