Two people have died in separate incidents at Portsmouth’s Mutiny Festival, and now many are raising their worries about availability to water at the event’s facilities. After and 18-year-old woman and a 20-year-old man died earlier during the festival, the final day (May 27) of the weekend was cancelled. Dizzee Rascal, Sean Paul, and Craig David were amongst many names scheduled to perform at the festival.
Per a report from the Guardian, the causes of the both deaths are believed to be due to the consumption of high-strength Ecstasy.
Reports on social media alleged that there was a noticeable lack of drinking water after 4pm, with some of the on-site taps not working at all. The organisers of the Mutiny Festival have responded to these suggestions, maintaining that there were 21 water taps working at all times throughout the festival.
The fact mutiny festival ran out of water yesterday on the hottest day and you're not even allowed to take water in is disgusting
— ♡Holly♡ (@lolhollyy) May 27, 2018
On the Saturday of the festival, the festival issued a ‘harm prevention alert’ via their Twitter page to warn those in attendance about any drug use, which you can read below.
Please RT – Please RT – Please RT pic.twitter.com/JjdZpuWYuO
— Mutiny Festivals (@MutinyFestivals) May 26, 2018
Police were then alerted at 7:10pm on Saturday evening, when the 18-year-old woman, later identified as Georgia Jones, fell ill, with the 20-year-old man, named Tommy Cowan collapsing just 20 minutes later. At least 12 other people are known to have been taken hospital over the course of Saturday night, though none of these have yet been confirmed to have been drug-related.
Cowan’s father has spoken to the BBC, saying: “It’s no good saying ‘don’t do drugs, all I can say is ‘take this on board, look what’s happened, if you want to end up that way, carry on’. If you don’t, don’t even think about it.”
