Nightmare at Coachella as light fixture falls on festival attendee and 'gashed her head open'
The Coachella music festival has descended into chaos after a heavy light fixture fell onto a reveler and 'gashed her head open.'
After DJ and producer John Summit took the Do LaB stage for a surprise set on Friday at 8pm, one audience member was left bloodied when the device plummeted into the crowd halfway through the show.
The unfortunate partygoer has not been publicly identified, but Joey Freshour, who was in the crowd, said the fixture fell on a woman and 'gashed her head open'.
Freshour told SFGate that there was 'blood all over the light, and then there was blood on the ground.'
He also told the story via his Instagram account. 'Thirty minutes in, we were all dancing [and] having a good time,' Freshour said.
'I'm chit chatting, having a good time, talking to one of my friends. I look over, out of the glimpse of my eye - probably four people in front of me - and see the light structure.'
'It had fallen and hit a girl directly on the side of the head, cutting her head open directly on the side right here,' he continued, gesturing around the temple of his head.
'Leading her to be bleeding out the side of her head...You can see little red dots on the side of the light in the video and basically that's her blood. Not good.'
DJ and producer John Summit took the Do LaB stage, pictured above, for a surprise set on Friday at 8pm before the incident at Coachella 2026
According to festival goer Joey Freshour, the heavy light fixture 'gashed her head open' and that there was 'blood all over the light, and then there was blood on the ground'
Freshour said Summit was around thirty minutes into his surprise set on the DoLab stage, pictured above
Freshour told SFGate that surrounding audience members tried to signal for medical help, but eventually three men picked the woman up and took her to the medical tent.
In his video of the scene, a large light fixture could be seen lying on the ground before the camera panned up to the cables that were supposed to be holding it up.
'She's in critical condition, but she's gonna be okay,' he continued.
'We need to do better. This is not right, safety's our biggest priority when we come to these things.'
Freshour said that Summit hadn't been aware of the situation, but said the incident was likely caused by the strong winds that were plaguing the desert festival on Friday night.
Anyma, another DJ playing later that evening, canceled his show due to the strong winds that had started blowing in the afternoon.
Producer Jigitz, who went on stage after Summit, reportedly announced he was forced to end his set early, according to the outlet.
A TikTok video showed the stage taped off and said that it was closed following the incident.
Freshour told SFGate that he returned to the stage to find it had been blocked off with caution tape. 'I was like, "Oh, wow. They're marking it as, like, a crime scene type of thing,"' he said.
Freshour said that Summit hadn't been aware of the situation, but said the incident was likely caused by the strong winds that were plaguing the desert festival on Friday night
Freshour said that he returned to the stage to find it had been blocked off with caution tape, and said: 'I was like, "Oh, wow. They're marking it as, like, a crime scene type of thing"'
A comment on TikTok said that there had been two injured in the incident, and added: 'There were two of us, I was lucky and got cleared last night but my friend was admitted with a brain bleed. She's stable now.'
The commenter also followed up that they would be considering taking legal action.
Another comment, seemingly from the mother of one of the girls, said: 'It was awful as a mom on the other end of the phone.
'They were scared and really hurt. Thankfully the paramedics that got them to the hospital quickly were great.'
The Daily Mail reached out to the Do LaB team, Coachella and John Summit for comment.
