Young man dies at Knockout music festival in Sydney, multiple hospitalised

A young man has died at the Knockout music festival in Sydney, police have confirmed, with three others hospitalised.

A young man has died overnight at the Knockout music festival in Sydney, police have confirmed, with three others taken to hospital.

Emergency services were called to the Sydney Showground at Homebush about 11.50pm on Saturday night, where paramedics tried to revive a man believed to be in his 20s.

The man could not be revived, with police establishing a crime scene and launching an investigation into the circumstances of his death.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said at a press conference on Sunday there had been an “unfortunate incident” at the festival, one of the first of the season, where a man passed away.

She said there had been no indication of drug taking before the man’s death.

“We understand he had underlying health issues, and there’s no suggestion of any drug taking,” she said.

The matter has been referred to the coroner.

A sign outside the festival encouraged anyone feeling unwell to visit a medical tent inside. Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Ms Webb said there had been multiple hospitalisations however for separate incidents of drug use.

“It’s always risky whenever you take illegal drugs, you never know where they’re made, you don’t know what’s in them, and you don’t know how your body’s going to react,” she said.

“So it comes with a great deal of risk. And I just want people to understand that.”

A NSW Health spokesman said three festival attendees had been taken to hospital via ambulance.

All three remain in hospital in a stable condition.

The death comes ahead of a long-awaited four-day NSW drug summit, with regional hearings to begin in October and two days of meetings in Sydney on December 4 and 5.

Pill testing is expected to be a hot topic of conversation, with the state government under increased pressure to implement a service during festivals, with Victoria having committed to a trial over summer following the success of similar trials in ACT and Queensland.

Speaking outside the Knockout festival on Saturday, many attendees told NewsWire it was essential to guarantee the safety of festival-goers.

Three others were hospitalised after falling ill at the festival.

A 25-year-old Knockout attendee said pill testing is “really important”, claiming people will bring drugs into festivals no matter what.

“It should be essential,” he said.

“People are going to bring (drugs) in no matter what … there’s no point fighting it because at the end of the day it’s going to get in.”

Another 25-year-old woman said while ideally people wouldn’t consume drugs in the first place, pill testing could help “ensure people are as safe as they possibly can be”.

“You do hear of horror stories of when things don’t go too well for some people, and if it’s a way to reduce that risk of people dying and serious harm I think it’s definitely a good idea to have,” she said.

The calls follow the death of two men in suspected drug overdoses last year after attending the Knockout Outdoor festival in Sydney, with nine urgent medical transfers to hospital also being made at the 2023 event.

More to come.

Originally published as Young man dies at Knockout music festival in Sydney, multiple hospitalised