Bored Ape owners suffer eye and skin injuries from UV lighting at a weekend NFT festival: 'Had so much pain and my whole skin is burned'

06.11.2023 - 20:03 / pcgamer.com

Bored Ape Yacht Club company Yuga Labs says it is «aware of the eye-related issues» suffered by attendees of the ApeFest Hong Event that took place over the weekend, and is encouraging people experiencing symptoms «to seek medical attention just in case.»

ApeFest Hong Kong was a three-day event for Bored Ape and Mutant Ape owners. It was basically blockchain BlizzCon: A Mecca for NFT true believers promising community events, meetups with fellow JPG owners, «exclusive merchandise» (of course), and a series of musical events to close things out. Initially at least, it seemed that a good time was had by all, although the festive atmosphere may have been dampened now and then by moments of commiseration over the very big, ugly, obviously-this-was-going-to-happen NFT market crash.

Day 1 of #ApeFestHK was an absolute vibe. Can't wait to see all you Apes tonight.Doors open at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal at 5:00 PM HKT. pic.twitter.com/rqryibwBJqNovember 4, 2023

Not long after that closing concert, however, something appeared to be not quite right with ApeFest attendees. «Anyone else’s eyes burning from last night?» Feld4014 tweeted on November 5. «Woke up at 3am with extreme pain and ended up in the ER. I saw a couple reports but just trying to figure out if there was a common thread.»

It was indeed a common thread.

In a more detailed breakdown of his experience, crypto_birb said he was diagnosed with «photokeratitis,» a condition that occurs when eyes are exposed to UV light. Welding without adequate eye protection can cause it (commonly known as «arc eye»), and snow blindness is another form of photokeratitis. It's basically like a sunburn of your corneas, and like sunburns, the good news is that in most cases the condition is temporary (as long as you stop doing whatever it was you were doing to cause the problem in the first place) and the bad news is that it until it clears up, it can be very painful.

Eventually, Yuga Labs acknowledged the issue via the Bored Ape Yacht Club Twitter account.

«Apes, we are aware of the eye-related issues that affected some of the attendees of ApeFest and have been proactively reaching out to individuals since yesterday to try and find the potential root causes,» it tweeted on November 6, the day after reports of injuries first began to surface. «Based on our estimates, we believe that much less than 1% of those attending and working the event had these symptoms.

»While nearly everyone has indicated their symptoms have improved, we encourage anybody who feels them to seek medical attention just in case."

In a statement sent to PC Gamer, a Yuga Labs representative said it is «aware of the situation and are taking it seriously.» 

«We are actively reaching out to and are in