On Friday, the tragic news of the drowning of a 21-year-old festival goer at Rocking the Daisies came to light.
Initial reports – our Friday story HERE – lacked much detail, and had many wondering if the victim was anyone they knew.
But slowly, bits and pieces of information have been released.
From news reports, it was understood that a 21-year-old staff member had disappeared under water at around 10:20AM on Friday.
A Zimbabwean national, he had asked his boss if he could get a boerewors roll and take a swim and tragically drowned.
Emergency response was immediate, with the dam and the Beach Bar dance floor closed off until 7:30PM that evening, when it is suspected the body was found.
This information below is according to one of our readers, who provided us with a few details about what went down:
[The] beach bar was closed for the whole of Friday ’cause they couldn’t find the body.
So what happened was we all went down to the dam for a swim…then we left and about 20 min later, my other friends who were sitting on the bank watched this guy swimming rather badly…[they] were thinking to themselves, “Shit, this oke really can’t swim what is he doing.”
He was swimming on his back doing like a funny back stroke thing…flapping all over the place and they thought he was fucking around but then realised that he was really really struggling.
Then about five minutes later he was another 75m out from the bank and he really started struggling, then all of a sudden he just dropped to the bottom and all they saw were bubbles.
At that point everyone around the dam jumped in and swam towards him to trying find him (my friends included). The dude’s brother, who really couldn’t swim either, was on the side of the dam crying out, screaming.
The lifeguards were in, nobody could find him.
Apparently, the bottom of the dam has like deep mulch & reeds which you can easily get stuck in and they think he got tangled up in those.
Scuba divers had to go in, the fire brigade arrived. It was so fucking sad!! They only found the body around 7:30pm and then the Beach Bar and dam were both open for the rest of the weekend.
On Saturday, 8 October, Rocking the Daisies released an official statement on their Facebook page:
Rocking the Daisies takes the safety of its festival community very seriously. We can confirm that at approximately 10.50am on 7 October 2016, a drowning occurred at the venue’s dam. It was picked up immediately by the onsite lifeguards and the emergency services reacted at once.
The festival is following all prescribed protocol and is working with the appropriate authorities to understand how the incident happened.
All of us are deeply saddened by this news. First and foremost, we want to extend our sympathies to the individual, who was a staff member of one of the event’s suppliers, and to his family.
Additional information will be provided as and when it becomes available and as may be appropriate.
Again, tragic news and a reminder of how quickly things can take a turn for the worse.
If you have a personal or alternative account of what went down, don’t hesitate to contact us at editor@2oceansvibe.com.
[imagesource:barenecessities/instgram] Always forgetting to pack your swimming trunks f...
[imagesource:X/@TableMountainNP] Hiking trails along Table Mountain remain closed due t...
[imagesource:pexels] 45-year-old Joshua Dean has now become the second whistleblower li...
[imagesource:youtube] Money doesn't last long in the hands of a fool. The owner of a...
[imagesource:pexels] Puppy yoga, or doga, is a fairly new wellness trend that has been ...