This year’s edition of Big Day Out ran Jan. 15-30 and made stops in Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival series featured many major acts including Muse, Jet, Lily Allen, Powderfinger, The Mars Volta, Ladyhawke, Peaches, The Decemberists, Girl Talk, Mastodon, Rise Against and Eskimo Joe.
In Melbourne, police are close to arresting one of four attendees who jumped the fence of neighboring Flemington Racecourse where 700 horses worth a total of $200 million are kept.
The festival-goers got into the stables of a trainer, Mark Kavanagh, and let 25 of his horses out of their stalls and chased them around for 30 minutes. One horse suffered a minor pelvis injury.
In Sydney, it was the police who were being investigated. The Police Integrity Commission is looking into claims by BDO security that an Assistant Commissioner gave his 16-year-old daughter an undercover police pass to gain free access to the Sydney show.
At the Adelaide show, a man wielding a small knife stole tickets from a punter outside the venue.