Two victims, aged 22 and 26, were airlifted from the festival. While both sustained serious but non life-threatening injuries, Met Police say that the 26-year-old may have suffered ‘life-changing’ damage. The other victims suffered less serious ‘stab and slash’ wounds – one has since been released from hospital and the other was treated on site at the festival.

Police believe that the stabbings occurred during a fight in the VIP area. The suspects fled and no arrests have been made. Partial footage of the fight has since emerged on Twitter:

#Hainault #Chigwell
BREAKING: We have received footage of violent scenes of disorder at the #GarageNation music festival at the Hainault Forest Country Club. Please note that this footage has already been forwarded to the Met Police @MetCC pic.twitter.com/fX8hr1dHg2

— London 999 Feed (@999London) July 1, 2018

One eyewitness, 21-year-old Mel Dee, took to Twitter shortly after witnessing the stabbing:

It was honestly the scariest thing ive ever witnessed. He got cut so deep i could see like the layers of his skin it was so bad. — Mel Dee (@meldee2018) June 30, 2018

Speaking to the BBC, Dee described the frightening scene in more detail. ‘We saw him go towards someone in quite an aggressive manner. Then he jolted back’, she said. ‘They’d slit his back, slashed him. It was very deep, he was fuming. All of a sudden he’d ran towards whoever else it was and soon there were 15 of them.’

‘Other knives were pulled out. I could see people punching – arms flying everywhere. We ran as far away as we could.’

Despite claims by the organisers that full searches and metal detectors were a ‘condition of entry’, Dee was sceptical – calling the security ‘dreadful’, she described how measures at the front gates were sorely lacking. ‘They said, ‘Can we check your bag?’ and they got us to unzip our bags but they didn’t search properly before letting us through. Other festivals I’ve been to are much more strict.’

The stabbings were a dark end to the festival, which saw an estimated attendance of 15,000 and over 100 artists. The festival is a big attraction for fans of house and RnB, with appearances from big names like Heartless Crew, Artful Dodger and Pied Piper, as well as underground acts like Lawrence Anthony and DJ Lush.

Garage Nation 2018 Lineup