Falls Offers Counselling To Victims Of Festival Crush

Organisers of Falls Festival are offering counselling to the punters involved in the horrific crowd crush at the Lorne event last month.

A statement posted to the festival Facebook page last night reads, "… We have given details for a 24 hour counselling service we have set up and we are ensuring these patrons have the relevant contacts they need for future communication and follow up, which we have made clear is open and available at any time.

"We are currently undertaking investigations into the incident. This process is ongoing, with various parties involved, and we are endeavouring to do this as quickly and as thoroughly as possible to be able to deal with all enquiries.

"We want to ensure the correct protocol is being followed so that all involved are given the depth of consideration they need to give them the chance to get the best possible outcome. We want to get this right, for the long term, so it is imperative that the correct procedures are followed."

The statement also addressed comments made this week by one festivalgoer who was injured in the crush, who has alleged her family were left uninformed of what happened, despite the punter giving her contact details to organisers. 

The 22-year-old female, Maddy, told Hack that she did not get to contact her mother until she was in recovering in hospital the next day. 

"They said they’d contacted everybody, but they didn't," she said. 

The stampede reportedly left Maddy with a fractured sacrum (a bone in the pelvis).

"There's talk of potential ticket refunds or paying medical bills, but there hasn’t been any promises yet," she said.

"There’s so many people caught up in it that are so far worse off than I am. So they've got a lot of work ahead of them."

It has been speculated that Falls will be hit with a class action lawsuit, but Maddy has said she will not be taking part in it. 

"I still don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t want to blame one thing, one person. Because then you could be blaming the people that pushed me, or the DMAs for being so popular.

"But [the festival] does have duty of care. At the end of the day they do have a responsibility."

See Falls' full statement below.