Organisers of a punk music event on Cramond Island in Edinburgh have responded after an event last Saturday descended into chaos, with multiple injuries and a huge emergency response.
Volunteer RNLI crews and the coastguard were initially scrambled after reports of a woman who was said to have injured her ankle and found herself on the island but cut off by the tide from the mainland.
While making plans for the woman to be collected by air ambulance, RNLI crews identified three further casualties, including one person who had “fallen from height”.
Despite a flurry of coverage, organisers initially did not comment on the situation.
Now, a spokesperson for the “Cramond Island of Punk” event has defended the event’s safety precautions, saying that previous organisers were impressed by the orderliness this year.
Posting on Facebook on Wednesday, they stated: “To be clear, we had first aiders onsite (obviously sober); the course I personally did also included rescue packages.
“I am also qualified for confined spaces – part of that course also included airlifts.”
They claimed the injured woman suffered a broken ankle and two leg fractures before adding “we have good relations with the emergency services and the locals – some actually attended the event this year”.
This account differs from the RNLI’s official record of a single suspected lower leg fracture.
RNLI Lifeboat and Coastguard crews arrived at the island just before 4.30pm, and, after some difficulty tracking her down, found the first woman on a rocky slope with a ‘suspected lower leg fracture’.
They decided that – due to the difficult location and the extent of her injuries – the best course would be to evacuate her by helicopter to a waiting ambulance at Cramond Village.
While the woman was being attended to, reports of another injured person who was “unconscious but breathing” sent lifeboat crews searching again.
The casualty eventually came around after oxygen was administered and they were conveyed to a waiting ambulance on the shore.
Another person with a head injury was treated by ambulance crews before it was decided they did not require further medical assistance.
A fourth casualty who had fallen from height presented themselves as emergency services were leaving. They were treated and advised to attend A&E when possible.
Despite two people being conveyed to waiting ambulances – one airlifted, one transported directly, according to the RNLI – only one was eventually taken to hospital.
“We received a call at 16.15 on Saturday 29 August to attend an incident on Cramond Island, Edinburgh,” a spokesperson for the Scottish Ambulance Service confirmed.
“We dispatched one ambulance and three special operations response teams (SORT) to the scene. We transported one patient to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.”
Cramond Island, due to its popularity with visitors and the fact it is only accessible by foot along a thin causeway when the tide is out, is a hotspot for RNLI and Coastguard callouts. Between 2008 and 2013, the RNLI Queensferry Lifeboat crew launched 178 times to rescue people stranded on or around Cramond Island.
The island’s geography, featuring rough open land, patches of scrub, and jagged, rocky shorelines, also presents challenges for event organisers.
Drawing attention to “what the articles didn’t cover”, the event’s organisers said: “After the last band, the stage area and equipment was cleared (rubbish as well) within an hour and a half and back on the shore”.
They added: “All the people camping also cleared the island so well that we didn’t even need the clean-up crew.
“The previous organisers were very impressed with how well organised [we were] and with how well it was ran (sic).”
