Festival Hall’s Ceiling Tiles Fall On Fans During Bad Omens’ Concert Last Night

Paul 'Browny' Brown

CEO/Founder and Editor-In-Chief

Jan 23, 2025

7 min read

During Last night’s second show at Festival Hall, frontman Noah Sebastian acknowledged the incident and called for a moment’s silence to pay respects to the victims. He also explained he didn’t see the incident happen as he was performing and in the zone.

His speech was the first time one of the parties had addressed the actual accident and sympathised with the Bad Omens fans who injured, some of which were in attendance again.

UPDATE: At 4:34pm AEDT, in a statement shared with Wall of Sound, a Festival Hall spokesperson says:

“Thank you to our onsite first aid team who responded quickly. We have conducted an immediate review of the special effects vendor and additional safety checks before tonight’s show.”

Additional clarification has been requested from the spokesperson about the incident.

The venue denies claims anyone lost consciousness, referring to a St Johns Ambulance report, despite conflicting accounts from fans in the crowd on night two who confirmed their friend did. The Festival Hall spokesperson has yet to comment on the injuries sustained by the fan who the ceiling tile fell directly on (with force) as seen in the below video submitted to and published by Wall Of Sound.

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In a weird case of taking a band’s name literally, last night’s first stop on Bad Omens‘ Australian Tour resulted in several concert-goers sustaining injuries when plaster ceiling tiles fell onto the crowd, according to eye-witness reports.

The incident happening during the closing track ‘Just Pretend‘ when confetti was fired into the air at force (not unusual activity) – but it appears the pressure dislodged pieces of Festival Hall’s plaster ceiling tiles which fell on top of the crowd below.

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Comments from those known to the victims state at least one fan suffered soft tissue damage to her hand.

It was reported from a Festival Hall spokesperson that a St Johns Ambulance report revealed there was a finger injury which was swollen and bruised.

Videos of the incident within the Melbourne venue have been shared across social media, including TikTok where the alternative rock outfit gained popularity following the release of their 2022 album THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND and recent releases.

The band (unaware of the situation) continued on with the show as it happened during the final moments of their set. While no statement has been released from any party – especially from the Hillsong Church owned venue – many fans took to social media and to Wall Of Sound directly to share their recounts of what happened.

Personal Recounts

Since publishing, many readers have come forward with their own recounts of what happened during the show. We’ll continue adding more as they come through.

One witness – named Kate – shared: “It was actually really bad… Two girls got dragged out in front of me, one bleeding from her mouth and neck, the other from her knee… A bunch of people in the area were scrambling to get out.”

Photos have since emerged where several sections of the roof were spotted missing following the incident during the encore. Photo credit: Connie Nicholl

Concert-goer (and Wall Of Sound reader) Skye Ryan – who was standing two people in front of a seriously injured victim – shared the following photos with a recount of her up-close experience: “[I] got a small scratch up my arm but the girl behind me [suffered a] huge head injury.”

Skye adds: “[I] was watching the show to the left of the stage when the confetti cannons went off. I felt something hard hit but thought it may have been the cap from the cannon, shrugged it off until people a row or two back started yelling for help and security. We all made room for them to jump over the barrier as this was maybe 3 rows from barricade.

When I turned around to see what was happening there was a girl on the ground clearly dazed, with blood running down her face. They had trouble getting her up as I’m not sure if she was passing out. Medics jumped in and escorted her out of the pit. The band had walked off stage at this point.

Security checked if people were ok & another young girl with blood on her chin was taken out of the pit. Show resumed a few minutes later so I’m not sure if the band knew what was happening. Large pieces of the roof were left on the floor just behind me & there was a clear void where it had fallen.“

Sarah, one of the victims who suffered soft tissue damage has personally reached out to share her experience:

“I was recording on Snapchat when it happened and my video cut as I got hit and my phone flung a meter away from me as I dropped to the ground, I was covered in blood from the girl next to me and she was very out of it, seems as if she was looking at the confetti and it’s [the debris] bounced off my hand and got her straight in the face.

Hospital gave me a medical certificate to cover a few days off and see how it heals up, venue people seemed to care very little but the paramedics on scene were amazing. [The venue staff] were very quick to get rid of the evidence.“

“It is very unprofessional! I work in warehousing and my finger is just too swollen & sore to be able to work, would’ve been nice to hear from the venue though.”

No statement issued from any parties involved

The concert is set to roll back into Festival Hall again tonight for a SOLD OUT round two. No word on if last night’s incident will interrupt proceedings.

We approached Festival Hall for a statement. Twice.
Bad Omens‘ team have declined to comment.

We will continue monitoring the story throughout the day.