Touring musician Marc Rebillet was forced to abandon his festival set after being abused by a furious crowd and pelted with bottles.
The American was appearing at the Listen Out festival in Adelaide on Friday night when he encountered what he described as “hostile and s***ty” behaviour.
Footage of the alarming incident has now gone viral, with a clip shared by Rebillet viewed almost two million times.
“Got decimated tonight playing before Ice Spice,” he wrote. “This was before they started throwing s***.”
Rebillet shot to notoriety during the Covid pandemic when he livestreamed himself improvising songs to looped beats.
In the years since, he has built a massive following and makes regular appearances on the street.
At festivals and concerts, he is known for spending time mingling with the crowd, handing punters the microphone to share their thoughts.
The Adelaide crowd gave him responses he wasn’t expecting.
“Get off the f***ing stage,” one shouted furiously.
“You’re a nonce,” another yelled at him. “F*** off and get Ice Spice.”
He persisted but so too did those he passed the mic to. At one point, the audience broke into a loud chant of: “Get off! Get off!”
Rebillet’s set was right before that of US rapper Ice Spice, who the majority of the crowd were clearly there to see.
Almost 30 minutes before he was due to finish, a group of security guards led him away when some people began to hurl bottles and other projectiles.
In a message posted on X, formerly Twitter, Rebillet said: “I don’t blame them entirely, they’re just children and my set was in the way of their Munch. Still, kind of a crazy thing to experience! Hope they become cooler adults.”
He revealed his computer and keyboard got wet in the chaos and said he had to “step off stage before they f***ed up my equipment permanently”.
Users on social media blamed the behaviour on the festival being all-ages, claiming under 18s were overwhelmingly responsible for the abuse.
“I’m so embarrassed to be from Adelaide right now,” one punter commented on Instagram. “You didn’t deserve that.”
Another lamented on Reddit: “Listen out is by far the worst crowds at any festival ever. It ruins the festival.”
Another agreed, saying the event “usually attracts the worst crowds, [which] says more about the organisers (sic) integrity”.
Commenting on the behaviour, one Reddit user said: “It’s so hard to get artists to even come to Australia, harder to get them to do shows that are not just on the East Coast, and when people actually do come to Adelaide this is the response they get.”
Aussie superstar DJ and singer Alison Wonderland slammed the behaviour, posting on X: “Treating an artist like this is the most lame disgusting lowest level form of bulls***.”
In reply, he said: “Bad slotting. Bad luck. Young kids. We brush it off and we move on.”
Listen Out organisers have been approached for comment.