Major Music Festival Falls Prey to Food Poisoning
A major music festival has fallen prey to massive food poisoning at its event – Author Cat Badra, Photo via Anne Erickson
It’s pretty much my worse nightmare to get food poisoning at a music festival. Okay, it’s not my absolutely worst nightmare, but it still sounds terrible. Now, a major music festival has fallen prey to massive food poisoning at its event. I just hope and pray that everyone fully recovers, because food poisoning can be nasty.
Major Music Festival Has Food Poisoning Incidents
The UK’s legendary Download Festival didn’t have its best annual event this past weekend. First of all, there was a lot of rainy weather, which made it more like a mud fest than rock and metal fest. Than, a reported food poisoning incident caused hundreds of attendees to get sick.
Download Festival happened from June 13 to 15 at Donington Park, featuring sets from Limp Bizkit, Queens of the Stone Age, Fall Out Boy, Avenged Sevenfold, Pantera, The Offspring, and more. The festival brought three days of live music and entertainment.
However, according to the experts at Food Poisoning News reports that an upwards of 500 people suffered food poisoning and had symptoms of nausea, diarrhea, stomach cramps and fever. Can you imagine being at a music festival, which can alrady be uncomfortable in the heat, and having all those symptoms? What makes matters worse is this going to a major music festival like Download is something people look forward to all year. Fans take time off work to enjoy the festivities. To get sick at what’s supposed to be such a fun event is no doubt a downer of an experience.
Festival attendees weren’t the only ones sick. Some of the bands performing had band members that got sick, too. Sean Smith, the frontman of the band The Raiders, reported on X/Twitter, “Got food poisoning. Been sick ALL night. … I’ve got to go to hospital to be put on an IV apparently.” That’s scary stuff. I remember getting food poisoning and getting so dehydrated that I had to be put on an IV, too. In my case, it was because my potassium was dangerously low, which is extreme cases can actually result in death.
According to the experts at Leicester Mercury, the festival shut down two food venders because of health violations. The BBC interviewed a health official, who said an investigation was going on.
“We worked with the event organizer to investigate two food vendors, both of which were closed by the event organizer over the course of the weekend,” health officer Paul Sanders told the BBC. “We are aware of reports of people feeling unwell and will continue to investigate. Anyone continuing to feel unwell following the Download Festival should contact their GP in the first instance.”
A spokesperson for promoter Live Nation also commented on the incident, stating, “Two vendors were closed and removed from the site as they failed to meet the standards of Environment Health and the local authority.” They added, “Download Festival operates a robust 24-hour welfare operation including staff and welfare tents to support unwell customers throughout the site.”
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