A Soundsplash festival attendee who's tested positive for COVID-19 says the event was an "ideal breeding ground" for the virus to spread.
The Ministry of Health said earlier on Wednesday evening that it's aware of a "number of cases" who attended the Hamilton festival over the weekend,
"Public Health officials are currently assessing the exposure and expect to publish a location of interest early tomorrow, which will include health advice for those who were there," a spokesperson said.
But Soundsplash told Newshub on Wednesday - just before the Ministry of Health release - that it hasn't had any contact from them yet.
"At this stage, nobody from the Ministry of Health has contacted us to let us know that we are a location of interest or that there were positive COVID cases at our event," a spokesperson says.
"We expect they will let us know if these reports are true but for now we have not heard anything."
Festivalgoer Emma told The Project she's been experiencing "pretty much every symptom" of COVID-19 in the lead up to her receiving a positive test result on Wednesday.
"I started feeling a little not good on the Sunday when I left [the festival], but I thought that was just because of all the dust we'd all inhaled at Soundsplash," she says.
"I felt good on the Monday and then on Tuesday I felt like I'd been hit by a truck and I just felt absolutely horrible."
Emma, who is fully vaccinated, says the Ministry of Health is speculating she caught COVID-19 at Soundsplash, given it was a three-day event ending on Sunday and she started showing symptoms on Tuesday. She also says "a lot" of people she knows who also attended the festival have either received positive test results or are awaiting their results.
The festival was jam-packed, Emma says.
"I think there were four stages and each one was packed both nights, everyone was squeezed together. There was a lot of - I hate to say it - sharing of water bottles and all of that. So when you think of COVID, it's pretty much the ideal breeding ground."
But luckily, Emma is prepared for her COVID isolation since her mum is "a bit of a stresser" about the virus.
"We've got a lot of food backed up because she speculated that something like this would happen, and I've got a lot of really good mates who've offered to help out if I need any help with food and all that."
This year the annual three-day Soundsplash festival was held at Mystery Creek near Hamilton, with the line-up including Netsky, Broods, and Hollie Smith.
Thousands of teenagers and young adults normally attend, with photos from the event showing masses of maskless youths.
