Download Festival mosh-pit warning after hundreds of 999 calls
Metal fans heading to Download Festival this weekend have been urged to put their wearable tech in airplane mode when heading into a mosh pit to avoid making accidental 999 calls.
Most weekends Leicestershire Police handle about 600 emergency calls, but when the three-day festival is underway at Donington Park, these calls rise by nearly 700.
This is in part because when festival goers wearing tech such as smart watches jump into a mosh pit the devices assume they 'have been in a collision', Leicestershire Police warned.
It causes a huge increase in calls, which puts call handlers under pressure and can take resources away from genuine emergencies.
The police explained that each call has to be assessed and those who do make unwanted 999 calls are told to stay on the line to conform if they are safe.
The force said: 'All those calls had to be assessed, with three outbound call attempts completed to ensure there is no threat, risk or harm, taking our contact handlers away from answering true emergency calls.'
To avoid this from happening again, those attending the festival have been asked to put their smart watches on airplane mode before entering a mosh pit.
Police request people answer 'callbacks from hidden numbers' to let them know you are safe and are 'switching on airplane mode or disabling emergency alerts on your wearable tech'.
Download Festival, which is already underway, is expected to host about 75,000 rock fans, according to the organisers.
The gates to the festival opened on Wednesday ahead of the three-day festival for fans to see acts including headliners Green Day, Sleep Token and Korn.
The metal festival has seen several incidents in the past few years. In 2022, two men died at the festival after becoming unwell, one with a suspected cardiac arrest. Leicestershire Police said the man was taken to hospital on Saturday evening, when heavy metal band Iron Maiden were the headline act.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Download Festival mosh-pit warning after hundreds of 999 calls
Metal fans heading to Download Festival this weekend have been urged to put their wearable tech in airplane mode when heading into a mosh pit to avoid making accidental 999 calls. Most weekends Leicestershire Police handle about 600 emergency calls, but when the three-day festival is underway at Donington Park, these calls rise by nearly 700. This is in part because when festival goers wearing tech such as smart watches jump into a mosh pit the devices assume they 'have been in a collision', Leicestershire Police warned. It causes a huge increase in calls, which puts call handlers under pressure and can take resources away from genuine emergencies. The police explained that each call has to be assessed and those who do make unwanted 999 calls are told to stay on the line to conform if they are safe. The force said: 'All those calls had to be assessed, with three outbound call attempts completed to ensure there is no threat, risk or harm, taking our contact handlers away from answering true emergency calls.' To avoid this from happening again, those attending the festival have been asked to put their smart watches on airplane mode before entering a mosh pit. Police request people answer 'callbacks from hidden numbers' to let them know you are safe and are 'switching on airplane mode or disabling emergency alerts on your wearable tech'. Download Festival, which is already underway, is expected to host about 75,000 rock fans, according to the organisers. The gates to the festival opened on Wednesday ahead of the three-day festival for fans to see acts including headliners Green Day, Sleep Token and Korn. The metal festival has seen several incidents in the past few years. In 2022, two men died at the festival after becoming unwell, one with a suspected cardiac arrest. Leicestershire Police said the man was taken to hospital on Saturday evening, when heavy metal band Iron Maiden were the headline act.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Download rockers told to take off smartwatches after moshpit ‘collisions' cause accidental 999 calls
When hundreds of 999 calls came in from fans at the Download festival two years ago, the emergency services must have thought a disaster was unfolding at the three-day heavy metal gig in Leicestershire. In fact, the calls were made automatically from smartwatches and other devices worn by fans because 'the tech assumed that people in moshpits had been in a collision', according to Leicestershire police. Now the force is appealing to those attending the festival this weekend to turn their devices to airplane mode or disable emergency alerts to avoid unnecessary 999 calls. The number of 999 calls during the event doubled from the usual 600 or so over a long weekend. 'In previous years, due to wearable tech issues, we saw a rise of nearly 700 extra 999 calls in a weekend,' Leicestershire police said on social media this week. 'All those calls had to be assessed … to ensure there is no threat, risk or harm, taking our contact handlers away from answering true emergency calls.' Police are asking fans to stay on the line if their device makes an accidental 999 call, or to answer callbacks made by emergency teams 'to let us know you are safe'. According to one US personal injury law firm, moshpits 'always have risks and dangers' but can result in 'enjoyable chaos and energy release'. Some wearable technology includes a 'crash detection' feature. Apple says its watches and some iPhones will sound an alarm and display an alert if they detect a 'severe car crash'. Unless the alert is cancelled, the device calls the emergency services after a 30-second countdown. About 75,000 people are expected to attend the Download festival in Donington Park, a racetrack near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, for what the organisers call the 'UK's premier rock festival'. The site has been open to campers since Wednesday with the rock festival opening on Friday. Green Day, Sleep Token and Korn are the daily headline acts at the festival. This year's fancy dress theme is Friday 13th. The organisers said: 'For everyone's safety and comfort, we ask that you don't bring any fake or replica weapons, including toy guns, swords or other realistic-looking props. These items can cause confusion during security checks and may be mistaken for real weapons by our teams or the police. They can also be distressing to other festival-goers.'
San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Love and more pay tribute to Brian Wilson
Billie Joe Armstrong has shared a previously unreleased cover of the Beach Boys ' 'I Get Around' in honor of the late Brian Wilson. The Green Day frontman shared the just-over-two-minute clip on Instagram, explaining that he recorded his rendition of the 1964 song a few years ago, but 'never got to share it.' 'One of my all time favorite songs ever,' Armstrong wrote on the post, which was shared Wednesday, June 11, the same day Wilson died at 82 years old. Wilson's family confirmed the news on social media but did not disclose his cause of death. Wilson was a founding member of Beach Boys, serving as the group's main songwriter, arranger and producer, and was responsible for hits such as 'California Girls' and 'God Only Knows.' 'We are at a loss for words right now,' a statement from Wilson's family shared on social media read. 'Please respect our privacy at this time, as our family is grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world.' The Hawthorne (Los Angeles County) native had been living under a conservatorship since May 2024 after his wife and longtime manager, Melinda Ledbetter Wilson, died. He was suffering from a major neurocognitive disorder that left him unable to care for himself or recognize some of his children. He had six children, two of whom — Carnie and Wendy — went on to form the '90s pop trio Wilson Phillips. Wilson's former Beach Boys bandmate and biological cousin Mike Love gave him a special shoutout during his speech at the Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony on Thursday, June 12. Love was inducted along with South Bay rockers the Doobie Brothers, George Clinton, Ashley Gorley, Rodney 'Darkchild' Jerkins and Tony Macaulay. 'I especially must thank my cousin Brian Wilson,' he said while onstage at the event hosted at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York. 'My first cousin by blood but brother in music, together we set the stage for some of the most successful music collaborations of all times.' Earlier in the day, Beatles musician Paul McCartney expressed his own appreciation for the late musician online. 'Brian had that mysterious sense of musical genius that made his songs so achingly special,' he wrote on Instagram. 'The notes he heard in his head and passed to us were simple and brilliant at the same time.' Elton John also praised Wilson's artistry on Instagram, calling him a 'musical genius' and noting that he had 'the biggest influence' on his songwriting. Bruce Springsteen echoed the sentiment, describing Wilson as 'the most musically inventive voice in all of pop' on the social media platform. Metallica frontman James Hetfield said in an interview with the Associated Press on Thursday that Wilson is 'one of the most amazing songwriters on the planet,' citing him as a 'huge inspiration.' Even President Donald Trump, who has picked fights with several American musicians over the past few months, including Springsteen, shared a special tribute to the star. "Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys was a true Musical genius, right up there with the greatest, EVER," Trump posted
