Croatian festival Hideout seems to be suffering from a serious knife crime issue, with one fatal stabbing, and more injured.
One resilient man who was stabbed at the festival, Bryn Cotter, went to the hospital to get stitched up before going back to party the next day.
Bryn accidentally bumped into a man who became extremely aggressive and then bottled him. He was smacked with a chair, and the stabbed in the throat and back.
Here’s his Snapchat story:
Speaking to UNILAD, Bryn explained what happened:
I was with a big group of friends enjoying myself. I had walked off round the corner to go to the bar to buy a drink and I believe that I bumped into a guy as I was walking past.
I apologised and tried to continue walking on, but the guy I bumped into got extremely aggressive and started yelling abuse at me.
His mates (about 10 of them) began to crowd around me, pushing and shoving and being abusive. I had no choice but to defend myself and attempted to get away.
Bryn told us about when he noticed the severity of his injuries:
The fight went on for about 10 minutes until I managed to fight them off enough to get away into an area behind the stage. I then realised that I was bleeding way too much.
I had been bottled in the face, smacked on the head with a chair and also stabbed in the throat and back. Some people who work in the club took me to medical tent who assessed that I needed go to the hospital, so they called an ambulance to take me.
I am lucky to be alive and will not let this impact on my life, it is what is.
Speaking about knife crime, Bryn said:
Being from London it’s not unusual to hear about knife crime. I don’t think people realise the serious consequences of carrying knives can have.
I think more steps should be taken to make sure people aren’t carrying weapons – e.g. bag searches – when going into large events.
It affected the atmosphere of the festival for the rest of the week as people became more cautious. Had I known that buying a drink could have cost me my life I may have stuck to drinking water.
The day after this happened to Bryn at Hideout Festival, a 26-year-old British tourist was killed as a result of a stabbing at the same event.
Ugo Wilson, from London, was stabbed to death outside Kalypso nightclub on the island of Pag at around 5.30am on June 28.
A spokesman for Hideout festival said:
Following an incident involving a group of young men at Zrće Beach early this morning [Wednesday], one man tragically lost his life.
Another man remains in hospital.
We are giving every assistance to the investigation and our thoughts and condolences are with the family and friends of the people affected.
Bryn’s friend Rosie Bickham posted his Snapchat story to Twitter captioned:
I’m sorry but a boy I met at a festival last year just put a Snapchat story up of himself at Hideout Festival after being stabbed three times and he goes out the next day. He had 14 stitches people are actually crazy.
Most of the responses online were in reference to Bryn’s safety.
Thankfully Bryn’s story shows how you shouldn’t give in to fear and keep calm in the face of adversity, in whatever surprising shape it may come.
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