On Saturday night at Melbourne's Etihad stadium, 5,000 people attended the second installment of the Darts Invitational Challenge. This was an international darts event attracting some of the world's best sportsmen, but just before 9 PM it disintegrated into a beer-powered riot. Hundreds of young men in novelty costumes body slammed each other and Etihad's plastic furniture, 40 cops had to show up to restore order, and Premier Daniel Andrews condemned the destruction as "not the sort of major events we want in our city."To get a better picture of what happened we spoke to someone on the scene. Meagan (not her real name) went along with a friend expecting a dull night, only to find herself in the middle of a riot.
Meagan: Well the setup was similar to a boxing match. One player was announced by the commentator and they'd come out high-fiving all the fans. You know that guy who says and in the left corner… they had that guy. Then the player got to the stage where there was a darts board and took their shot. It was calm when I first arrived, but I was told by everyone it would get rowdier.What was the first sign things were getting out of hand?
Around eight o'clock I realized how drunk everyone was. These blank signs were sitting on the tables for people to write whatever they wanted. People were writing all sorts of tasteless stuff—"I've got a boner" and "I love sluts." The guy with that sign had a big grin on his face. His mom must be so proud. And maybe I don't go out enough, but every single man and his dog was hitting on me. They were very funny if you can stomach it, but there was also just something wrong with them all.Etihad said the venue was only serving mid-strength beer. Why was everyone so drunk?
I don't think it was the beer. I think it was just the culture. You put a whole bunch of young sort of drunk guys in with plastic furniture and darts, what do you expect? But maybe I just don't take darts seriously.When did it really go wrong?
It was about 8:45. I saw a few guys lifting each other up onto tables. Then I saw a bunch of guys cheering in a circle. I wasn't sure what was going on but when I got closer I saw they were watching guys body slam each other. They were also putting tables in the middle, taking turns leaping onto them and breaking them. There wasn't any security there yet. I think they were on the outskirts and I think they were fearing for their safety. It got big really quickly and I think they were a bit nervous.How big?
There would have been a couple of hundred people, easily. It started with a few tables and then the circle got bigger and suddenly beer was flying everywhere. And cups and then more tables, and then more chairs. People were throwing each other onto piles of chairs. Everything was just flying. I had to look up the whole time to make sure nothing would land on me.
It wasn't actually violent. There was just a big group of guys play-fighting. No one was angry or was going to start a fight. They were all just dressed up, thinking they were superheroes. When I was in the mix, there was actually a few of them taking care of me. There was one guy dressed up as Jesus who was especially looking out for me. I'm not religious, but it was nice to have Jesus with me.What were you doing?
I was going around the edges, trying to keep out of the way. I wasn't scared because it was dangerous but not aggressive. Finally, security showed up when they ran out of chairs and tables. It was funny, this young security guard yelled, "Guys, stop throwing chairs!" He thought he'd bring the whole thing under control. Actually, the fact was that there were only about 15 of them and they were just young and looking nervous. They just didn't know what they were doing.How was the rest of the crowd responding?
They weren't impressed. I heard a few people say, "What a bunch of hooligans. There was nothing like this last year and this is embarrassing." They just wanted to watch the game but it had all stopped. The players went offstage and, so I hear, and they weren't impressed.How did it end?
Finally the police came in with pepper spray. I got scared because I didn't want to be involved with that. They didn't use it though. Just some announcer got on the stage and said, "Come on guys, we want to get the game back on but we can't because of safety issues. Let's all just calm down." People started pulling chairs out of the piles and sitting on them in a sign that they wanted the game to start again. The whole fight lasted about half an hour but that's a long time for chair throwing.So what was the image that stayed in your mind?
Chairs flying. And beer. I was just covered in beer. I stank. I had to come home and wash my hair at one o'clock in the morning. My husband was disgusted. He didn't know what happened in there until I showed him some photos.So what did you learn about darts?
Only that I was right. I thought it would be this big bogan [Aussie slang for lower-class people] event and I was right. Also it was more the younger guys who were mainly causing the trouble. And at the start Simon the Wizard (a famous Australian darts player) was still playing. I thought, How can he concentrate with this happening? That was impressive.Follow Julian on Twitter.
Advertisement
VICE: Set the scene, what did it look like when you arrived?
Meagan: Well the setup was similar to a boxing match. One player was announced by the commentator and they'd come out high-fiving all the fans. You know that guy who says and in the left corner… they had that guy. Then the player got to the stage where there was a darts board and took their shot. It was calm when I first arrived, but I was told by everyone it would get rowdier.What was the first sign things were getting out of hand?
Around eight o'clock I realized how drunk everyone was. These blank signs were sitting on the tables for people to write whatever they wanted. People were writing all sorts of tasteless stuff—"I've got a boner" and "I love sluts." The guy with that sign had a big grin on his face. His mom must be so proud. And maybe I don't go out enough, but every single man and his dog was hitting on me. They were very funny if you can stomach it, but there was also just something wrong with them all.Etihad said the venue was only serving mid-strength beer. Why was everyone so drunk?
I don't think it was the beer. I think it was just the culture. You put a whole bunch of young sort of drunk guys in with plastic furniture and darts, what do you expect? But maybe I just don't take darts seriously.
Advertisement
It was about 8:45. I saw a few guys lifting each other up onto tables. Then I saw a bunch of guys cheering in a circle. I wasn't sure what was going on but when I got closer I saw they were watching guys body slam each other. They were also putting tables in the middle, taking turns leaping onto them and breaking them. There wasn't any security there yet. I think they were on the outskirts and I think they were fearing for their safety. It got big really quickly and I think they were a bit nervous.How big?
There would have been a couple of hundred people, easily. It started with a few tables and then the circle got bigger and suddenly beer was flying everywhere. And cups and then more tables, and then more chairs. People were throwing each other onto piles of chairs. Everything was just flying. I had to look up the whole time to make sure nothing would land on me.
Was it violent?
It wasn't actually violent. There was just a big group of guys play-fighting. No one was angry or was going to start a fight. They were all just dressed up, thinking they were superheroes. When I was in the mix, there was actually a few of them taking care of me. There was one guy dressed up as Jesus who was especially looking out for me. I'm not religious, but it was nice to have Jesus with me.What were you doing?
I was going around the edges, trying to keep out of the way. I wasn't scared because it was dangerous but not aggressive. Finally, security showed up when they ran out of chairs and tables. It was funny, this young security guard yelled, "Guys, stop throwing chairs!" He thought he'd bring the whole thing under control. Actually, the fact was that there were only about 15 of them and they were just young and looking nervous. They just didn't know what they were doing.
Advertisement
They weren't impressed. I heard a few people say, "What a bunch of hooligans. There was nothing like this last year and this is embarrassing." They just wanted to watch the game but it had all stopped. The players went offstage and, so I hear, and they weren't impressed.How did it end?
Finally the police came in with pepper spray. I got scared because I didn't want to be involved with that. They didn't use it though. Just some announcer got on the stage and said, "Come on guys, we want to get the game back on but we can't because of safety issues. Let's all just calm down." People started pulling chairs out of the piles and sitting on them in a sign that they wanted the game to start again. The whole fight lasted about half an hour but that's a long time for chair throwing.So what was the image that stayed in your mind?
Chairs flying. And beer. I was just covered in beer. I stank. I had to come home and wash my hair at one o'clock in the morning. My husband was disgusted. He didn't know what happened in there until I showed him some photos.So what did you learn about darts?
Only that I was right. I thought it would be this big bogan [Aussie slang for lower-class people] event and I was right. Also it was more the younger guys who were mainly causing the trouble. And at the start Simon the Wizard (a famous Australian darts player) was still playing. I thought, How can he concentrate with this happening? That was impressive.Follow Julian on Twitter.