A guard who was severely injured after she was trampled by gatecrashers during this year’s Ultra Music Festival in Miami has filed a lawsuit against Ultra and its parent company, Event Entertainment Group, as well as the City of Miami and several other stakeholders, seeking in excess of $10 million as well as legal fees.
As Billboard reports, Erica Mack and her lawyer, Eric Isicoff, are also pursuing damages against the management organisation in charge of the park where this year’s Ultra Music event was held, the security and concessions companies for the festival, and the company that provided fencing for the event, Carlson Fence.
The 28-year-old Mack was left in a critical condition with two skull fractures, bleeding in her brain and from her ear, and a leg broken in three places, among other injuries, after gatecrashers stormed an under-barricaded area during the popular dance music event.
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According to Mack’s complaint, there had been an agreement between the City and Ultra that would have reinforced weak spots in the fencing around the event area with “G8” fencing, a sturdier alternative to the typical chain-link fencing used at many festivals and events.
The complaint alleges that gatecrashing was commonplace during previous Ultra instalments at the park, and that the area where Mack was placed was identified as being “particularly vulnerable to gatecrashers”. Additionally, police allegedly identified the area in question as vulnerable to gatecrashing.
However, despite the warnings, Mack’s complaint, which she filed in Miami-Dade County court, alleges that the concession company requested G8 fencing not be placed in that specific area so that their equipment could be moved in and out more easily.
Mack’s suit alleges negligence and gross negligence against all of the defendants, as well as breach of contract against Event Entertainment and the park trust. According to documents included in the complaint, Event Entertainment held $1 million in worker’s compensation for accidental bodily injury during the event.
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“All they had to do was follow through with what they promised. One of the things they were obligated to submit was a security plan which showed G8 fencing around the perimeter,” Isicoff told Billboard. “This was easily preventable, without a huge expenditure. They could’ve gotten this thing to where it was safe, and they didn’t.”
In a statement released on Friday, Ultra insisted that “the safety of our event, fans, crew and personnel has always been our number one concern”, however, “certain criminal acts will always be beyond our control even though we continue to assure that security is of prime importance”.
The incident during Ultra 2014 in Miami was followed several months later by a similar incident during Australia’s Listen Out festival. A guard was hospitalised during the event’s Sydney leg after gatecrashers broke through event fencing and trampled over him.
