Australian fan gets waterboarded 'for fun' at music festival

Footage has surfaced of a man being waterboarded at an Australian music festival - apparently by choice.

The video was taken at November's five-day 2016 Earthcore festival in Victoria, where one person died and 32 people were arrested for drug driving, Yahoo reported.

Footage posted to Instagram shows the man lying down with a wet cloth being placed over his face, then water being poured over it.

He struggles, asks for it to stop, then sits up with a smile on his face.

Waterboarding is a controversial military torture technique which was reportedly used at the beginning of the Iraq war and simulates the feeling of drowning. It was banned by President George W Bush in 2006.

NME.com reported an Earthcore spokesperson saying the incident wasn't condoned by organisers, but "if two consenting adults want to do something" they should be allowed to.

"The video wasn't posted by The Brink officially, and was made by two private citizens with ongoing consent being provided and checked on by both parties, with possible safety precautions being taken," the spokesperson said.

"It isn't condoned by the crew, but The Brink feels strongly that if two consenting adults want to do something, they should be allowed to do so."

A spokesperson told AAP that the waterboarding incident hadn't been reported to police.

The woman's death at the festival wasn't being treated as suspicious, and a coroners report is due for release soon.

News Feed

app-facebook

earthcore

about 4 months ago

As many of you might be aware we have had a death at earthcore in Victoria this year.

Our condolences to the family and friends of deceased. Before anyone jumps to any conclusions over this very sad situation we would urge caution in making comments that can harm the family and friends of the deceased any further. We are aware of an existing medical condition and are waiting for the coroners inquest. We offered a counselling service on site to all staff and patrons at the tim...e of the incident. A medical team attended within 2 minutes of the person found and was unable to revive her. This is truly heart breaking news and we will be releasing a formal statement once we have all the facts in place.

We strongly advise that making wild speculations and inferences during this very difficult time for the family and friends of the deceased will add more stress and difficulties to a very sad and unfortunate situation.

We find some wildly inaccurate and defamatory comments by media and trolls counter productive, unethical and opens up the potential for further harm to the grieving parties.

We urge you if you do see someone making some unsubstantiated claim to kindly ask them to wait till all facts are ascertained before further comment.

Thank you.

Earthcore HQ

See more

1.5k

402

58