Organisers of the Avicii party held in Joburg say they are happy with the way the event went off despite a series of incidents on the night.
|||Organisers of the Avicii party held in Joburg last weekend say they are happy with the way the event went off despite a series of incidents on the night.
A Joburg man was stabbed in the neck with a glass bottle, numerous fights broke out, and party-goers have complained of the venue being overcrowded at the H20 party at Wild Waters in Boksburg.
The man, who is in his late twenties, was stabbed in the neck by an unidentified party-goer and was subsequently rushed to hospital, where he is still recovering.
The party was one of the three Avicii parties held in South Africa. The popular Swedish DJ performed in Durban, before heading to Joburg and then Cape Town as part of his SA 2012 tour.
Itsik Bouhbot, head of marketing and events co-ordination at H20, said that the stabbing that occurred at Wild Waters had been an isolated incident and the first such incident in 12 years at the venue in Boksburg.
“Our security were alerted and dispatched to the incident. The perpetrator ran into the crowd and disappeared,” said Bouhbot.
“Our paramedics immediately attended to the man who was stabbed and he was stabilised and taken to hospital. The police are now investigating the matter further.”
Bouhbot said the incident had occurred on the outskirts of the dance floor.
He also dismissed talk of the party being overcrowded and said that they had sold no extra tickets at the venue. Around 14 000 people attended the Avicii party.
“There were no tickets available for sale at the event as it was sold out,” said Bouhbot.
“Our venue grading certificate allows us a capacity of 18 000, but our event capacity was limited to 14 000 as we do not promote overcrowding at our events.”
“The event was not overcrowded by any means. We are in full compliance of the new Sasrea (Safety at Sport and Recreational Events) Act.
“We have a dedicated safety officer on site, and comply with all restrictions from EMPD and SAPS,” he said.
He added that they had been aware of three scuffles that had taken place on the night.
“With an attendance of 14 000 people there are always minor incidents that occur, our security did handle the situation in a professional manner and controlled the incidents immediately.”
Bouhbot said that 300 security personnel, emergency services as well as police were present at the party.
“We had car guards, external perimeter guards, internal perimeter guards, ID checkers, searchers, stage security, roaming security, bar security, crowd-control security and police were also present.”
However, party-goers who attended the Avicii concert have taken to social networking site Facebook to express their disgruntlement at the way the event was controlled.
Tammy Segal said on the official H20 Facebook page that she was unhappy because the venue was overcrowded.
“Too many tickets are being sold and I witnessed way too many fights and cans being thrown all over the place. If you are going to overcrowd like that you need more security and crowd control,” said Segal.
She added that she would not be attending any further H20 events.
Bernadette Laualso bemoaned the fact that security at the party did not do their job.
“When I was there the security looked less than interested. There were these two guys who were shouting and one guy punched the other, and the security guard was right there, but they seemed less than interested in stopping the fight,” she said.
Matthew van der Berg, who attended an H20 event for the first time, said that although he had enjoyed the party, the crowd issue had been a major problem.
“There were at least five fights around us and it got so out of control because of six steroid junkies who thought the crowd around them was a fighting ring,” he said.
Jade said she would not be going back.
“Something the organiser failed to mention is that, yes H20 capacity may be 18 000, but that’s the entire venue. For the Avicii performance, all 14 000 were squashed into the same little area, which was in effect extremely overcrowded.”
“I was there, simply as a fan of Avicii. We arrived just before his set and left right after, and in the very short time we were there we were shoved around and had more than one ‘oke’ threatening to hit us (us being a bunch of seven girls).”
Saturday Star