In 1980 the annual Hollinwell Show at the Hollinwell Showground near Kirkby-in-Ashfield, England, and something terrifying happened. As part of the show on Sunday 13 July 1980, the Forest League of Juvenile Jazz Bands held a charity show. As a part of the charity event, it became a Junior Brass and Marching Band Competition, and competitors would come from across the East Midlands.
There were 11 different marching bands and around 500 children attending. Many of them were coming from 65 Kilometers (40 miles) away for the competition. The competition would start at 9 a.m. and many of the students were already tired from their long travel.
At 10:30 the children began to collapse. Many of the children, adults, and babies were suffering from nausea, fainting, abdominal pain, convulsions, headaches, tremors, and hyperventilation red eyes, sore throat, and vomiting. It affected around 300 people.
It was never known what had caused this. It could have been mass hysteria as the event has many qualities of it. Some believe that the pesticides, used in nearby fields could have caused the event as the pesticide used was banned in 2000 in the UK. The food and water at the showground weren't contaminated.
SOURCES:
Wikipedia
BBC September 22, 2003
BBC September 2003
BBC September 23, 2003
What was the weather like? If it was hot, could the heat and the exhaustion of the children from their trip to the festival and then playing for 90 minutes cause a sudden attack of tiredness and fatigue?
ReplyDelete