Police in the UK are warning festival goers to leave their smart watches at home after mosh pits caused a spike in emergency calls.
Download Festival is set to take place from June 13-15 at Donington Park in Leicestershire, England, and the event is absolutely stacked.
The rock festival is headlined by Green Day, Sleep Token and nu metal icons Korn, but there are other heavy acts performing as well such as Poppy, Bullet For My Valentine, Meshuggah, Currents and Opeth.
However, with bands like Korn likely to inspire massive mosh spits, the police are advising fans to avoid wearing smart watches.
Smart watches mistake mosh pits for collisions and call for help
According to the Leicestershire Police, in previous years, they saw a rise of almost 700 extra 999 calls (the British version of 911) in a single weekend.
“The tech assumed that people in mosh pits had been in a collision, causing 999 contacts and abandoned 999 calls,” they explained in a Facebook post.
Mosh pits are extremely common at metal and rock shows, with crowds bumping into each other as the music plays. Sometimes, bands will even get fans to split into two groups and run at each other in what is known as a “Wall of Death.”
“All those calls had to be assessed, 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.”
Download’s 2023 incarnation was stacked with Metallica, Bring Me The Horizon, Slipknot, Disturbed and Evanescence, just to name a few.
As such, it would make sense that police don’t want a repeat of previous years, but the festival itself hasn’t prohibited smart watches, as they’re not listed among the items fans aren’t allowed to bring to the event.
