The British media are reporting two deaths at the U.K.’s two-city V Festival, which took place over the past weekend in Chelmsford and South Staffordshire and featured a lineup that included the Killers, the Stone Roses, Tom Jones and more. At around 1 a.m. on Sunday, 22-year-old Timothy Brockhurst was found not breathing in a tent at the South Staffordshire location, as reported by the BBC. Emergency personnel administered first aid before pronouncing him dead. The cause of death is still unknown, but authorities have ruled out foul play in this instance.
The other festival fatality, however, is another story: Police arrested 10 men on suspicion of murder, according to the NME. The victim was a 39 year old, whose name has not been released, who reportedly succumbed to head injuries. His body was found yesterday in the back garden of a house, near the Chelmsford festival grounds, where a private party had been held. The suspects range in age from 23 to 35, and the police are seeking out others who were at the party.
These deaths are the latest in a series of unrelated deaths and violence at concerts to make headlines this year. In late July, a 24-year-old man was found dead at the U.K.’s Global Gathering festival. And earlier that month, a young woman died at the Warped Tour and there were stabbings at concerts by Tenacious D, the Cro-Mags and the Swedish House Mafia. In June, two attendees of the Electric Daisy festival died of drug- and alcohol-related causes. And also in June, a stage collapsed at a Toronto Radiohead concert, killing their drum tech. And in response to a variety of festival tragedies in 2011, SPIN put together this special report on the tragedies’ varied causes.
