Punters at Download festival over the weekend were encouraged to take off their smartwatches or put them on airplane mode, after it was revealed by police prior to this year’s event that hundreds of 999 were mistakenly made by the devices in previous years.
It seems there were 700 erroneous emergency calls from Download in 2023. The tech assumed that the person wearing the watch had been in collision, when in fact they were probably just enjoying themselves in the moshpit. “All those calls had to be assessed,” said Leicestershire Police in a statement. “With three outbound call attempts completed to ensure there is no threat, risk or harm, taking our contact handlers away from answering true emergency calls.”
They explained that the crash detection feature on smartwatches can send an alert to emergency services as a result the physical intensity of the moshpit. If a device does make an accidental 999 call, fans were asked to stay on the line or answer callbacks to “let us know you are safe”.
It’s not known yet whether punters responded and 999 calls were reduced over the weekend. This year’s event finished yesterday and appeared to go without a hitch, with Green Day and Sleep Token pulling off memorable headlining sets on the Friday and Saturday.
It’s not the first controversy to hit Download this year. Recent weeks have seen a row about toilet facilities after it was revealed that the festival had fallen in with official government guidance prohibiting trans people from using the bathroom of their identified gender.
Several acts, including Pinkshift and Witch Fever, put out statements condemning the move and though the festival appeared to backtrack – pointing out that in a statement that: “the majority of toilets will be gender neutral and available to all” – the damage had seemingly been done. Beauty and cosmetics brand Lush immediately terminated its partnership with Download.
