Falls Festival: More than 60 people injured in crowd crush at Lorne music festival

More than 60 people were injured and 19 hospitalised during a human crush at the Grand Theatre stage of the Lorne Falls Festival as fans rushing to see a headline act triggered a stampede on Friday night.

Thirteen women and six men were taken to hospital with lower leg fractures, pelvic fractures and cuts and bruises.

Creative Industries Minister Martin Foley on Saturday described the stampede as "unacceptable" and "very dangerous" and wished all those who were injured a speedy recovery.

"Worksafe has investigated and worked with Falls management and has recorded that they've made some immediate requirements for change to the facility to make sure that there is not a repeat event."

The stampede happened as fans rushed from one headline act - DMA's in the large Grand Theatre tent - to see another - London Grammar on the Valley Stage - just before 10pm.

Victoria Police said the festival-goers were injured after some crowd members at the front of the throng of people leaving the tent lost their footing.

Nineteen-year-old Olivia Jones was caught in the middle of the tent when the crush began. Photo: Supplied

'I thought I was going to die' 

Olivia Jones, 19, was caught in the middle of the tent when people started to fall down.

Ms Jones says the crowd crush was like a "domino effect" and she was pushed to the ground with about five people on top of her.

"I thought I was going to die," she said. "There were people lying there, unconscious, not moving. I thought the people around me were dead."

After gasping for air and begging for help for about four minutes, Ms Jones said she was eventually pulled out of the mass of bodies by her arms.

She was rushed to Lorne Community Hospital and treated for bruising to her legs, a deep cut to her knee and bruised ribs.

"I'm surprised no one died," she said. "They should have more security and bigger exits."

Olivia Jones' injured leg as a result of the stampede at Falls Festival, Lorne on Friday night. Photo: Supplied

'We were just like dominoes, people fell and fell'

Ruby Campbell, also 19, said she was just behind the two girls who were the first ones to fall.

She said it was so packed inside that she felt she could have been "carried out in a sea of people without using her legs".

"Then two people tripped in front of me, I didn't want to stand on them, but the crowd was pushing, so I just fell," Ms Campbell said.

"We were just like dominoes, people fell and fell."

She said all she could hear was screams around her of people saying, "I am dying, I am dying".

"By this stage, I was just clawing at anyone and anything to get out, but it was getting heavier and heavier," Ms Campbell said.

"I remember thinking 'stay calm and breathe normally' and ....then I heard a snap underneath me. I was on top of a person and their bone snapped.

"There were 10 people on top of me ...I felt the air get squished out of me. I just sort of accepted it. I just wanted it to be over. You'd almost die than have to go through that."

Ruby Campbell, 19, said she heard people screaming, 'I am dying' and bones snapping as she lay under a pile of bodies. Facebook 

'Frightening' footage 

The Australian Medical Association's president Dr Michael Gannon described footage of crowds at the festival as "frightening". He said he was amazed people did not suffer more serious injuries in the stampede, and that no one was killed.

"It is quite frightening vision ...just the sheer volume of people and reports of people trying to leave through a narrow exit," he said. "There is the possibility of the crush, and we know from similar incidents at sporting facilities and music festivals in the past that people can be irreversibly injured."

Ambulance Victoria's State Health Commander Paul Holman said paramedics and first aid providers had helped more than 60 people injured in the crush, with patients aged from their late teens to late 20s.

"It was quite a chaotic scene and required a major response," he said.

Later that night 

A handful of Salvos volunteers were already set up next to the tent just when DMA's finished their set and the crowd started to surge out the entrance.

"I just saw someone on the ground and so we provided assistance by blocking them, so people couldn't walk on them," Major Chris Pitman-Jones said. "We provided some crowd control until the festival staff got there."

Paramedics and nurses who are patrons actually stopped by to give assistance and then the Salvation Army volunteers stayed to provide emotional assistance.

The tent was closed once everyone was evacuated. There were still four acts scheduled to play in the tent, but they were cancelled.

Performances on the open-air Main Stage theatre at the other end of the festival grounds continued as scheduled into the night.

Salvation Army volunteers turned their tiny tent into an emergency triage.

"We have an amazing team who set up an emergency triage in conjunction with the hospital, because one of our volunteers is the CEO of Lorne Hospital," Major Pitman-Jones said.

"Our volunteers are a combination of nurses and community workers. They helped to care for the patients by cleaning their wounds, bandaging them and prioritising them as to who needed to get into hospital."

Response praised

One festival-goer, Nick Moriarty, 22, who hurt his leg and ankle in the crush, said he was happy with how organisers had responded.

"It was a freak accident," Mr Moriarty said.

"There is no reason to be saying they did a bad job, because they didn't. The only bad thing is they only had two exits for such a big crowd. But now they have opened the sides."

Mr Holman said crowd crushes at overseas festivals had caused multiple injuries and it had been a relief that no one was critically injured.

He said the Falls Festival was one of the better organised festivals with health workers on site when the crush happened and few drug or alcohol related incidents at the festival.

"This event demonstrates the value of having a good medical and emergency plan," he said.

Code Brown 

Barwon Health said 15 people were taken to University Hospital in Geelong, the rest were taken to the Lorne Community Hospital.

Seven people were discharged from University Hospital by 1pm on Saturday, and the rest were in a stable condition. Three more are expected to be discharged later in the afternoon.

One young woman with crutches and a leg brace declined to speak to the media while waiting to be discharged outside emergency. A nurse helped her from a wheelchair into a waiting Uber, before she was ferried home.

Shaken, anxious parents were coming and going from the hospital over the course of Saturday morning and early afternoon.

A Barwon Health spokeswoman said the number of people injured had prompted the hospital to issue a Code Brown, which is used when an external disaster impacts how the hospital can cope with patients. 

"The safety and wellbeing of our patrons is of paramount concern to us," a spokeswoman said. "Whilst a very distressing situation, we are heartened and thankful for the amazing work of our medical teams and staff who responded with such care and support to those affected and continue to do so for the remaining duration of the festival. Normal programming will resume today."

The Lorne site of Falls Festival this year. Photo: Falls Festival

The day after

By 3pm Saturday, the festival sent out the following message to all the punters preparing to enjoy themselves and ring in the new year:

"We just want to remind you all take it easy tonight, look after your friends, hydrate, stay calm and be very patient moving between bands," the message, transmitted through the Falls Festival app, said.

"If you have any concerns please speak to our staff, security or medical teams. We want everyone to have a great and safe New Year, Falls x"

Earlier, a free phone service was set up near the Valley Stage, and people used it throughout the day to call their loved ones.

"I got to call my mum, she saw a video of what happened, and was a little bit worried but now she knows I'm okay," Alysha Kitchingman, from Geelong, who was inside the crowd crush, said.
 

One of the entrances to the Grand Theatre on Saturday at Lorne.

This is the 24th annual Falls Festival, and the 23rd held at a farm in Erskine Falls in the hills above the Victorian seaside town of Lorne.

Last year, the festival relocated to Geelong after an out-of-control bushfire in the area burned through the towns of Wye River and Skenes Creek.

Festival programming for sites interstate at Marion Bay, Tasmania and Byron Bay, New South Wales, remains unaffected.

Outside the Grand Theatre tent at Falls Festival before the stampede on Friday night. Photo: Ebony Mitchell

This was one of three serious incidents at a music festival within a week.

A young woman died after she was hit by a falling tree branch at the Lost Paradise music festival on the NSW Central Coast on Wednesday.

And three young girls were sexually assaulted during performances and at a campground at the Falls Festival's Tasmanian leg at Marion Bay.