The young fan who was injured by a magnesium flare set off in the crowd at Soundwave’s Sydney leg at Homebush has apparently come forward, claiming that reports of her injuries had been exaggerated, while Police – with the aid of Soundwave organisers – are continuing their investigation.

The young woman was attending Australia’s preeminent heavy, hardcore, and metal festival with more than 75,000 other punters, but was injured after a fan set off a flare during Bring Me The Horizon’s set between 7.20pm and 8pm at Stage Three of the event.

As The Age reports however, initial reports from the Sydney Soundwave of the girl having been badly burnt by the flare, needing to undergo emergency surgery, appear to be incorrect. The paper contacted nearby hospitals to see if their burns unit had treated anyone for emergency surgery during the event, but turned up naught. But St Johns Ambulance – who supplied medical services at the event – did confirm they treated three people for minor burns, who then returned to the festival.

Part of the misinformation came from Soundwave boss and incessant twitterer AJ Maddah. Once he caught wind of the incident, he took to his social media to track down the flare-wielding culprit, writing:

Maddah now says that it was a reactionary statement. “I was really upset,” he tells The Age, “I was losing my mind through tiredness and I was told those things burn at 180 degrees and that if it touched anyone it would disfigure them. Thankfully I was wrong about it. We’ve heard that she’s OK and had a few stitches.”

A female fan from Newcastle under the handle ‘girlwithapug’ took to tumblr last night, claiming to be the woman involved in the flare incident, and as FasterLouder point out, has said the reports of her being “seriously burned and disfigured” are inaccurate, while going into detail about the events that happened during the set.

“I AM NOT DISFIGURED. IT WAS MY SHOULDER. NOT MY FOREARM. IT WAS NOT MELTED PLASTIC. IT WAS THE FLARE ITSELF,” she writes on her post, “just wanted to clear that up guys.” Clarifying that she received several stitches to her shoulder, not her forearm as previously thought. “Its basically just Chinese whispers… the rumours have just escalated horribly out of proportion!”

“Its basically just Chinese whispers really,” she adds. “The rumours have just escalated horribly out of proportion! I’m trying to let everyone know what actually happened, but it’s hard trying to fight like 90% of Australian media.”

The woman also thanks the first aid crew, her friends, and “the guy that was nice enough to stop and help me back up when everyone else was too busy trying to get away.”

Her sentiments echo Maddah’s belief that “Soundwave is such a strong community that people help each other out more than security or event staff can.” The Soundwave Boss was also swift to respond to the situation, calling for fans and witnesses to send images of the flare-wielding “moron” so that he could be arrested.

“There were 75,000 people at what was a great show and it took one dickhead to ruin the day for everyone,” Maddah told The Age. “Thanks to smartphones, we’ve had at least a dozen people send us photos of this moron’s face and his name and details. But just to demonstrate his complete stupidity he’s gone home and bragged about it on Facebook,” he says. “We’ll be passing all those details onto police.”

Speaking to SBS News, Police say that it’s lucky that no-one was killed during the Olympic Park event, concerned that the errant flares could have caused panic in the heaving crowd.

“We can see that people were injured and the outcome could have been far more dramatic,” said Assistant Police Commissioner Alan Clarke. “If that had resulted in a crowd crush – a crowd stampede – we could have had fatal consequences.”

With Soundwave now headed to Melbourne this Friday 1st March, then on to Adelaide and finishing in Perth, Cr Clarke said that Police would be working with Maddah and his Soundwave team to review security measures for the remaining legs of the festival.

Security staff will receive training to identify and confiscate flares before the final three Soundwave turns, while the NSW Police will continue their ongoing investigation as to how flares were smuggled into the Sunday event, as well as apprehending and questioning the man who set of the flare during Bring Me The Horizon, that caused the young female fan to get stitches to her shoulder also injured two others, who were treated for minor burns on site.

It was one of three flares that were set off during the concert according to eyewitness accounts via the Sydney Morning Herald. Two during Bring Me The Horizon’s evening set, and another during Metallica’s headline slot in front of an audience of more than 40,000.

Despite the security issues, injuries, and severe delays to transport that resulted in major juggling of set times and the cancellation of Garbage’s evening slot at Stage Two, 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!”

You can view the images of the Soundwave flare victim’s injuries below (via girlwithapug.tumblr.com):


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