Australia’s preeminent heavy, hardcore, and metal festival par excellence, Soundwave, kicked off over the weekend; beginning in Brisbane at the RNA Showgrounds on Saturday before heading down to Sydney’s Olympic Park on the Sunday, and despite pulling together more than 70 huge acts across multiple stages, the festival has already drawn attention following a tragic incident at the Sydney leg.

A young woman was treated for severe burns to her forearm after a magnesium flare was ignited in the middle of the crowd at Sydney’s Olympic Park. The incident occurred during Bring Me The Horizon’s set between 7.20pm and 8pm at Stage Three of the event.

Once he caught wind of the flare erupting and injuring punters, Soundwave festival boss AJ Maddah instantly took to his Twitter feed in a manhunt for the flare-wielding culprit.

“If we catch anyone w/ flares you’ll not only be evicted/arrested, I’ll dedicate every iota of energy & money I can muster to ruin your life,” Maddah went on to write. “If anyone can correctly identify this son of a bitch I will shower you with so much tickets, backstage and cash you wont know what to do… If you see anyone with a lit flare please take their photo and tweet to me so I can hand to police.”

In response to fan inquiries Maddah confirmed that the young girl had been disfigured by the flare:

Madder later thanked the “twitterverse” for their help in identifying whoever set off the magnesium flare, injuring fellow festival-goers, writing: “We now have images of this jerk from multiple angles. Hopefully we can post asap and get him identified.”

According to eyewitness accounts via the Sydney Morning Herald, there were several flares that were set off during the event, with reports that up to three flares were actually lit during the day at Sydney – including during Metallica’s headline set in front of an audience of more than 40,000.

Two went off during Bring Me The Horizon’s evening set at Stage Three, with unverified reports that one flare had fired upwards before falling back into the crowd and injuring audience members and burning the young girl, thought to be caused by plastic that had been set alight nearby that fell onto the woman and causing the burns.

Police have been notified of the incident and are currently investigating the events. There were more than 200 officers on-site during the Sydney Soundwave, with police and security staff ejecting 82 of the 75,000 strong crowd during the course of the day, while also identifying 54 people allegedly in possession of illicit drugs such as cannabis, ecstasy, ice, and amphetamines, from 252 people searched.

Despite the incident, Acting Assistant Commissioner Peter Lennon said the low numbers reflected that the majority of the crowd was sensibly behaved. “Large crowds descended on Olympic Park to see their favourite bands and an overwhelming majority of the 75,252 people in attendance behaved responsibly, but there were a small number who let the rest down,” he said.

“While one person is too many, we were pleased to see far fewer people in possession of and affected by drugs at this festival,” Cr Lennon added.

The Sydney event was also marred by delays, following transportation issues in getting gear for some of the larger headline acts to the Sydney venue from Brisbane, causing some swift juggling of acts’ playing times over at Stage Two, but eventually led to the cancellation of one major headliner.

Maddah announced over Twitter that while the majority of the trucks had shifted equipment from the Brisbane site, two had been held up due to flooding:

Maddah and crew were concerned that the trucks – containing gear for Paramore and Garbage – would affect playing times for the festival’s Sydney timetable, with the Soundwave boss even promising to look at freight planes and helicopters in order to get bands to play to schedule.

The delays caused major reshuffling to the timetable, with Sharks – who were to open at 11.30am – unable to play until the later time of 6.15pm due to their guitars not arriving in time for their morning slot. They were preceded by Cypress Hill, who extended their set in order to accomodate for the changes and delays.

Blink 182 and The Offspring were also given new playing times as crew awaited the appearance of the truck containing Paramore and Garbage’s equipment, and while Paramore were able to play – as the final act closing the stage from 9.45pm, Garbage’s slot was eventually cancelled.

Despite the transport issues, and the tragedy that marred Bring Me The Horizon’s performance, AJ Maddah and his crew took to social media to thank the 75,000 strong crowd for their patience and support:

“You are an amazing bunch! You’ve provided with the largest Soundwave of all time and stuck with us throughout the day when the weather looked like it was going to turn on us and even when the transport issues changed the set times on Stage 2. Thanks so much for your support and we’ll see you next year!”

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine