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A concertgoer at hip-hop festival Juicy Fest had part of his ear bitten off in a violent confrontation with a man with gang tattoos.
It is understood the scuffle at North Harbour Stadium on January 6 was gang related, with the ear-biting occurring after the man pulled a gang sign retaliating to a group of men “barking at him”.
A witness to the incident said the man who had his ear bitten was “retaliating to the barking-dog chants by men with Mongrel Mob tattoos by showing the Black Power sign”.
The person said there were many people with gang tattoos who were “intent on causing trouble” and making their presence known.
“One guy who had pulled a Black Power sign was involved in a fight and ended up having part of his ear bitten off by a Mob member and had to be taken to hospital,” the concertgoer said.
The concertgoer was concerned to see gang members trying to pick fights with people wearing anything resembling rival gang colours.
One woman with a Mongrel Mob tattoo was “trying to fight anyone” and started harassing a woman only because she was wearing a blue dress.
The concertgoer said the situation was inflamed further when headline act T-Pain took to the stage dressed in red and told the crowd to “represent their hood”.
“This made it worse because he would have seen the fights from the corporate box area during the night,” the concertgoer said.
“Yet he got on stage and told everyone to rep which hood they were from. This was inflammatory and it could have resulted in mass brawls.”
The organisers of the festival said gang regalia was banned at the event.
Michael Rickards, of Waitematā East area police, confirmed 12 people had been arrested at the North Harbour Stadium concert.
An altercation also occurred at the Wellington Juicy Fest, with a police officer hit with a bottle, assault and multiple arrests.
Most of these arrests were for assault, fighting and disorderly behaviour.
Some were refused entry or evicted due to their level of intoxication.
Several people were treated by medical staff at the concert for intoxication and minor injuries.
Hato Hone St John national operations manager for event health services Natalie Lang said they provided first aid and clinical treatment at Juicy Fest in both Wellington and Auckland.
“Both nights were steady and in line with what we would expect at events of this nature, with 81 patients requiring on-site treatment in Wellington and 110 in Auckland.
“The majority of these incidents were related to minor ailments, including small cuts, headaches, dehydration and sprains. Only one patient was transported to hospital in Wellington in a serious condition, and there were four patients requiring hospital transportation in Auckland — three of whom were in a moderate condition, and one in a serious condition.
Lang said St John was not in attendance in an event health services capacity at the Tauranga Juicy Fest event.
Despite these incidents, police found most of the attendees were reasonably well behaved.
About 10,000 people attended the event, which included performances by two-time Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter and actress Keri Hilson, T Pain, T.I, Bone Thugs N Harmony, The Game, Ashanti, Mase and YG.
An attendee at the Wellington Juicy Fest event described that as being “overrun by gang members — especially in the VIP section”.
Police moved to break up an apparent gang confrontation at Juicy Fest Wellington in the GA section.
“We had been really excited leading up to it … once we got in, the huge Mongrel Mob presence was very concerning ... the VVIP section seemed like it was mostly Mongrel Mob gang members.”
The man said he and his wife had been looking forward to the event for months, but ended up leaving early after he was hit in the back of the head with a full beer can.
He estimated he saw at least four major fights before leaving at 8.30pm.
The police said six arrests were made at the festival in Wellington due to fighting and disorderly behaviour, but the crowd of about 15,000 was “largely well behaved”.
