Brutal street fight filmed outside Polyfest

 

Polyfest organisers have distanced themselves from a "disgusting" street fight caught on camera on Saturday afternoon near the south Auckland event.

Police have confirmed they were called to several incidents of "disorderly conduct and fighting outside the event" late Saturday afternoon and early evening.

Polyfest, an "important showcase of New Zealand's diverse cultures and a celebration of youth performance" according to its website, has been going since Wednesday.

Theresa Howard from Polyfest says they are disappointed to have the incident linked to the event. 

"It's disgusting behaviour that we do take seriously, and we will be conducting our own internal investigation" she told Newshub. 

She said "small incidents like this" ruin the event for the rest of the 90,000 festival-goers, whose behaviour on the whole "was fantastic". 

"We were very happy with the behaviour overall... we would like to see these people held accountable."

The fight seen in the video, posted to Facebook, triggered numerous calls to emergency services from the public, but the offenders "were long-gone by the time we arrived", say police.

No arrests were made, but police are looking into the validity of the incident, which took place on Te Irirangi Road shortly before 4pm.

Newshub.