It seems that the million dollar mistakes of Wet ‘n’ Wild’s NYE Water Festival wasn’t the only New Year’s music event to gain attention for the wrong reasons.
A fight has broken out between the attendees of a three day New Year’s Eve festival and the rangers of the Victorian national parklands where they were hosted.
The more than 800 patrons that attended the Burning Diamond NY Festival have been criticised by lock Parks Victoria Murry and Reverine ranger Brooke Ryan for hosting an ‘illegal rave’ that disrupted other campers and caused severe environmental damage to the Torrumbarry bushland, as InTheMix reports.
“I have never seen environmental vandalism like it and the lack of respect for other campers is very disappointing,” Ranger Ryan told the Bendigo Advertiser of Burning Diamond, which featured a range of over 40 electronic acts and DJs, including Suntribe, Harry Blotter, Schumann & Sova, DJ Ego, and more. “I have never seen environmental vandalism like it…”
“Music has blasted from the speakers for the last three nights, (party-goers) have been alcohol intoxicated,” continued the Parks Ranger, accusing revellers of “walking around naked and into other people’s camps – lots of families were surrounded by the group. Campers have complained about syringes left around the area and there is a big public health issue because of people urinating everywhere.”
“The behaviour is completely unacceptable,” she adds. “They have ruined other people’s New Year’s Eves. Especially considering the great compliance of other people on the river.”
Parks Victoria were alerted to the event – which rallied two dance halls around a makeshift campsite of over 500 cars and three portable toilets – by policeman administering breath testing near Gunbower. “We contacted Victoria Police to let them know, but of course they were busy with it being New Year’s Eve – their busiest night of the year,” said Ranger Ryan, who managed to shut down Burning Diamond.
Patrons of the festival have hit back at the Park Ranger however, claiming that rubbish and drug-related refuse left behind was from other campers and not festival-goers while saying that the accusations of nudity and disruptive behaviour were false.
“Highly-intoxicated campers outside our group, bullied (us), (and) made us feel uncomfortable and hence disturbed our blissful ceremony to the point where it became unfriendly, even hostile on the main stage,” Burning Diamond organiser Christian Schumann tells the Bendigo Advertiser.
Schumann even points out that the organisers had tidied rubbish on-site prior to the event; “We came to the site days prior, the grounds where heavily littered and we had to make prior arrangements to clean this before anyone arrived,” he explains. “We did several trailer runs of rubbish to the public tip.”
Following the New Year’s event, on Thursday 2nd Janury, Schumann notes the “site was 95% clean with more skip runs still being organised. There was no trace of cigarette butts or other small contamination found on the ground.”
Festival attendee Kayla Edmiston adds that punters were there to “purely enjoy the environment… to remove ourselves from such negative environments where intoxicated idiots walk the streets and pick fights.” Adding that: “The true people who attended, such as myself, always clean up after ourselves… we would not go out to ruin such a place.”
Ranger Ryan says Parks Victoria are working with Victoria Police to prosecute the patrons and organisers of the event, which was allegedly organised through Facebook and operating without a permit. “We will do everything we can to make sure these people (suffer the consequences),” said Ryan.
Organiser Christian Schumann admits that they did not obtain an official permit for Burning Diamond, but did work with Victoria Police to monitor noise levels and control crowds and would accept responsibility for the consequences of not obtaining permission from Parks Victoria.
(Image: Burning Diamond. Source: YouTube)
