UPDATE
The organizers of Urbanscapes 2013 have just updated their Fanpage with the following announcement:
Hi everyone, we’re sorry this has taken awhile. We’ve finally managed to get a statement from the venue, MAEPS, and what they think is the cause of the rashes. Please see statement below.
“We were notified by the organizer today that some of you who attended the Urbanscapes festival last weekend at MAEPS experienced rashes and itchiness. After detail investigation, we discover the cause of the itchiness is due to caterpillars that love eating grass and breed seasonally in the ground. Due to the heavy rain before the festival, the site could have develop unusual amount of these caterpillars crawling on the green areas. We truly regret that many of you encountered this uncomfortable experience, but MAEPS is a living, breathing agricultural park that comes with the pluses and minuses in interacting with Mother Nature.”
While we regret the uncomfortably itchy experience (the Urbanscapes team is also experiencing our fair share of rashes), overall, we hope that you still enjoyed your weekend with us.
Meanwhile, Malaysian newspaper The Star had managed to get hold of an anonymous source from MAEPS regarding this incident. According to the source, the venue owners had allegedly informed Urbanscapes organizers of the emergence of caterpillars and other insects (read more here) a few days before the event.
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Last weekend was another memorable occasion for music lovers and party people, as KL played host to two major events: Wicked Festival and Urbanscapes, a creative arts festival that featured performances by Franz Ferdinand, Tegan and Sara, Efterklang and more (Two Door Cinema Club sadly had a last minute cancellation due to the singer being sick).
However, visitors of Urbanscapes started suffering from itchy rashes right after the festival, and a few posts started popping up on Facebook on Sunday night:
Urbanscapes’ fanpage manager then replied to one of the posts, probably thinking that the rash was a rare occurrence, and advised a festival goer to be mindful of where she sits :
The problem turned out to be more serious as more complaints and posts appeared the next day. Numerous other festival visitors spoke up and admitted that they, too, are suffering from an itchy rash. Even those who sat on mats, applied insect repellants or just walked around came home to red spots on their bodies.
A search for ‘Urbanscapes’ on Twitter revealed quite a lot of tweets talking about the ‘post-Urbanscapes itch’. Here are just some screenshots:
One of the event’s music performers also consulted a doctor about her rashes, and tweeted:
Having noticed that the rash wasn’t just a case of mosquito bites or minor grass allergies, and that even their own vendors are suffering from it, Urbanscapes posted an update yesterday (Monday) evening saying that they are trying to find out the cause of this skin allergy and are contacting the venue owners.
From what we’ve seen on social media, and people who’ve shown us their skin, the rash they’ve gotten from the festival venue differ in severity: some are experiencing reddish discolouration, while most suffer from a more serious allergy with extreme itchiness:
Possible causes?
Comments on Urbanscapes’ fanpage and tweets are multiplying as more and more are coming forward to find out what’s causing their allergies. Some fest goers claimed having seen huge amounts of caterpillars at the venue, and a picture of the possible culprit appeared on Instagram:
Another commentator on Facebook mentioned that a visit to the doctor revealed that his rash was caused by mites:
Waiting for an official announcement
We’re still waiting for the organizers of Urbanscapes to release an official statement regarding this matter. We’ll update you as soon as we hear something from them!
We would also like to urge those suffering from rashes to seek treatment from a skin specialist as soon as possible.
