The Sydney-based organisers of the inaugural Snowtunes festival, held this past weekend at Jindabyne, are in hot water with authorities after police and representatives from the Office of Liquor, Gaming & Racing discovered multiple "serious breaches" involving intoxication and general security.
About 3600 punters descended on the Snowy Mountains town for the event (which featured acts such as Hermitude, Allday, Tkay Maidza, Slumberjack, Paces and more), where one of the more severe incidents to be cited by police saw a 13-year-old girl — who was intoxicated — found "dazed and unaware of her surroundings" in the female toilets, "at risk of serious harm".
"OLGR inspectors and Police at the festival found controls and security supervision to be seriously lacking and insufficient for the 3600 patrons in attendance," OLGR Director of Compliance & Enforcement Anthony Keon said in a statement. "This, coupled with the risky nature of the event, created a potentially unsafe environment, particularly for minors."
"As well as the extremely serious issue of a 13-year-old girl being found intoxicated and disoriented in a public toilet, a 21-year-old man was detected supplying alcohol to two 16-year-old boys.
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"Six minors aged 13-15 were also found unaccompanied and without appropriate adult supervision, contrary to licence conditions for the event. An unaccompanied 14-year-old girl was unable to be located by her adult minder for one-and-a-half hours.
"The juvenile was only reunited after all patrons had left the event after 12.30am."
In addition, authorities allegedly found issues pertaining to availability of water and soft drinks, apparently further compounding the prevalence of intoxication. While not entirely condemning the festival — the OLGR did acknowledge that the theory behind such an event in a tourism-heavy location such as the Snowy Mountains is actually sound — Keon nonetheless believes that "the operators of Snowtunes failed to adequately assess the risks of conducting such a large event and failed to ensure adequate planning and deployment of resources to maintain proper oversight of patrons".
"Instead of properly monitoring the crowd for intoxication and safety issues security staff were deployed to the event perimeter to stop people jumping the fence without paying for tickets.
"By doing this they dropped the ball on what was going on in the general crowd and mosh pit areas and serious intoxication issues arose as a result."
Snowtunes Pty Ltd, the company behind the fledgling event, is now facing regulatory action at the hands of the OLGR.
The organisers have been contacted for comment.
UPDATE: Snowtunes Pty Ltd have issued a statement in response to the claims put forth by OLGR, who the organisers say put out their release "without consultation" and containing "inaccuracies". Read it in full below.
Snowtunes organisers are shocked that without consultation post event that OLGR have released a statement which contains inaccuracies. Representatives from St Johns, Red Cross Save a Mate, local Police, and Security who were present on the night all provided positive feedback at the cessation of the event.
Organisers of Snowtunes reiterate that safety and responsible service of alcohol are always our highest priority during any event. The Snowtunes event met all security requirements with a high concentration of qualified personnel.
Interaction with on-site policing was extremely positive and resulted in the police complimenting the organisers at the conclusion of the event. The Snowtunes organisers are seeking active engagement with OLGR regarding the content of their media release, and will be engaging with the Ombudsman to evaluate the decision taken by OLGR to release this statement without appropriate consultation.
These issues were not raised with Snowtunes organisers post the event, and the organisers are taking steps to resolve the situation with OLGR by providing all evidence and supporting statements from qualified personnel that stand by Snowtunes in refuting the claims made in this press release. The organisers require OLGR to provide clarity and evidence to support their claims.
Summary of issues detected by OLGR & police at snowtunes festival
About 3,600 patrons, including about 100 juveniles, and not enough roaming guards to adequately supervise the crowd. Festival guards wore dark blue jackets making them hard to identify for people requiring assistance.
Security staff not actively monitoring for intoxicated patrons and safety issues, but instead diverted to the perimeter to stop people jumping the fence to gain entry without tickets.
A 13-year-old intoxicated girl was located dazed and unaware of her surroundings in the female toilets and at risk of serious harm.
A 21-year-old man was detected supplying alcohol to two 16-year-old males.
Six minors aged 13-15 were found unaccompanied and without appropriate adult supervision.
An unaccompanied 14-year-old girl was unable to be located for one-and-a-half hours until all patrons had left the event after 12.30am.
A disc jockey was observed inappropriately yelling “[Fuck] the police sniffer dogs. People just want to get high and have fun” at the all-age event that included minors.
An 18-year-old intoxicated woman was observed drinking from a hip flask and subsequently vomited in front of inspectors. A male friend was also intoxicated and vomited.
A 23-year-old intoxicated man with a broken wrist was observed having difficulty standing, continuously dropped his mobile phone, tripped over his feet and lost a shoe and needed help from friends to put it back on. When asked by inspectors if he was on medication he replied, “No. I drunk my way through the pain.”
An intoxicated man was observed urinating in full view of hundreds of people next to the mosh pit. Event staff who observed the conduct took no action. Police subsequently intervened and arrested the male.
Two seriously intoxicated women were conveyed to the medical tent for ambulance care. Both were unable to converse and one continuously vomited.
Intoxicated patrons were observed in the mosh pit with festival organisers only ordering security sweeps of the mosh pit from 10pm.
No promotion of water and no obvious water stations even though the event’s licence included the need for free water stations at every bar area. Soft drinks were also not available for sale at the bar.
