26-year-old festival-goer blacks out on a theme park ride, leaving his friend giggling

A ‘freaked out’ festivalgoer passed out on a theme park ride next to his rollercoaster-obsessed friend.

Thomas Chapman, 28, ‘convinced’ Liam Owens, 26, to ride the pendulum ride at the Colour Clash event in South Wales by stating, “You only live once.”

As the ride starts to spin, however, Mr. Owens can be seen screaming and swearing before passing out for 15 seconds during the ‘intense’ experience.

Mr. Chapman said that he had paid for his rollercoaster-phobic friend’s £10 ticket, and the terrified builder had only decided to ride after learning he could not get a refund.

And he acknowledged he was ‘laughing’ when he discovered his companion had fainted, and he continued to find the situation amusing when they were eventually allowed to get off the rollercoaster.

Mr Chapman said: ‘He’s terrified of rides, but I eventually convinced him to go on because I already paid and they wouldn’t refund the money.

‘He was freaked out, and he was saying ‘There’s no way I can do this. I really don’t want to do this.’

‘But I just kept motivating him, just saying, ‘You only live once’ and ‘If you don’t go on, you’ll regret it.’

‘He passed out for about ten or 15 seconds, and I couldn’t stop laughing when he came off the ride.’

The two pals, both from Newport, South Wales, attended the rave event in Tredegar Par on July 15, which was headlined by DJs Basshunter and Example.

As a means of conquering his phobias, Mr. Chapman, a child support worker, tried to get Liam to ride the rotating attraction ‘Speed’.

He said: ‘You sit in the seat and there are probably about 150 seats on the end of a long tower.

‘It spins and flips you upside down and throws you towards the floor, and it’s quite an intense ride. But I love rides and I used to be terrified of them.

‘So when I see people who are afraid of rides, it reminds me that if they just get on it, and get it done, sometimes it works and you’re not so scared of it afterwards.’

Mr Chapman said Mr Owens was ‘adamant’ he would not go on the ride, and only agreed to it after his pal paid for his ticket and was refused a refund.

He said: ‘Liam had told me, ‘I’m not going on there. There’s no way I’m going on there.’ But I said, ‘You are!’.

‘We were all waiting in the queue as there was a few of us that wanted to go on, and he was definitely adamant that he wouldn’t.

‘But I had paid for him, and they said they wouldn’t refund it, and everyone else had gone on, so I said I’d come on with him.’

The video of Mr. Owens during the ride shows him gripping his head, flailing his hands, and shouting in terror as he is thrown around.

And around 45 seconds into the event, Mr. Owens drops into his chair as Mr. Chapman yells, “He’s fainted!”

Mr. Chapman said that Mr. Owens did not need medical help after regaining consciousness when the vehicle came to a stop.

And he claimed he was persuaded to join his friend on a second journey when Europe’s tallest rollercoaster debuted at their local beach resort, Barry Island.

He said: ‘There’s a big ride, I think it’s the biggest one in Europe, which has just opened up in Barry Island, which is a seaside resort in Wales.

‘And I’m really tempted to take him down there and get him to go on that one. I think he’s going to need a bit of dutch courage to go on that one.’

^{26-year-old festival-goer blacks out on a theme park ride, leaving his friend giggling}