The very first theory to take shape was that the children at Hollinwell had been the victim of some form of food or drink poisoning, to the point that warnings about eating the ice cream or drinking the water were broadcast over the parade ground speakers. Fortean Times reports, “No one is certain whether this announcement happened before, during or after the collapses began.” However, it is clear that in the minds of most present, this was the most immediate and comprehensible explanation for what was going on. 

This is given a fuller explanation by a photographer, Neil Lancashire, who was there that day and spoke to Nottinghamshire Live about his experience at the ill-fated event, “I did not think much of it to start and then the person over the tannoy said something like ‘don’t eat the ice cream’ as they thought it was causing the fainting. A lot of the children eating ice-cream then fainted.” He would go on to say explain that they then thought the water had been contaminated by something sprayed by farmers. It seemed, according to Lancashire, that in the aftermath of these announcements, more children began to pass out and double over in pain. Per the Fortean Times report, however, health inspectors came and tested the food and water and found nothing that would be concerning.

Once the poisoning and gas cloud options turned up empty, ideas began to get weirder. As reported by Fortean Times, a man from Scotland called the local police and claimed high-frequency radio waves were the culprit. This possible explanation has been mentioned in various other reports on the Hollinwell Incident, including one by Birmingham Live. If that wasn’t weird enough, Fortean Times also notes that a high-frequency transmitter was reportedly discovered at a Gas Board depot not far from where the incident took place. The lead wasn’t followed, for reasons unknown.

According to the American Cancer Society, if the human body is hit with a large enough amount of radio waves, it can cause tissue damage. The difficulty in this explaining the Hollinwell Incident is that all of the affected people would have to have been exposed to for quite a while and, even then, there is no proof that the effects would manifest so significantly and so immediately as to cause the sort of panic that took place on that Sunday morning.

Weird events like this always bring the possibilities of aliens and UFOs into the fray. According to Fortean Times, about a week after the Hollinwell Incident, the Daily Telegraph ran a story about claims of a UFO landing in a nearby field, which the police investigated. It doesn’t seem as if too many victims or investigators gave the idea of UFOs any more attention than this one case, though. Most of the investigations were focused on food and drink poisoning or pesticides and possible illnesses. 

Another odd theory about what took place that day in 1980 is expounded by a website called End Times Prophecy Report in direct opposition to what would become the leading theory about what took place in Hollinwell: mass hysteria. The website states, “Freud and his cohorts manufactured the lie of mass hysteria to hide what could no longer be hidden or explained with the lies which were then being used.” They go on to say that what really took place was a display of demonic power. So, according to them, Satan and/or his minions were wreaking havoc on that parade ground in 1980, and this is the case in any event that is described by experts as a case of mass hysteria. 

Another form of mass hysteria that came up in connection with the Hollinwell Incident is sociogenic hysteria. According to the Canadian Medical Association Journal, this involves the “rapid spread of illness signs and symptoms affecting members of a cohesive group, originating from a nervous system disturbance involving excitation, loss or alteration of function.” Basically, think about the nature of psychosomatic illness spreading among a group of people within a certain context where nerves are heightened. The excitement and weariness felt by a bunch of kids who had been up and practicing for a while and were nervous about the upcoming competition might have been enough for sociogenic mass illness to take place. 

Dr. Robert Bartholomew notes that this has happened throughout history. The forms it took on varied from “convent fever” to “panics” at factories, theaters, and schools. Dr. Bartholomew “has taken to calling the illness ‘protean’ in that it can take on or mimic the symptoms of other illnesses appropriate to the cultural milieu” (via “The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena“). If the idea of mass hysteria is medically plausible, then it seems sociogenic illness might be the most likely culprit for the Hollinwell Incident because it would explain the immediacy of the event as well as the eventual dying down of symptoms once people had been removed from the context. 

According to Dr. Robert Bartholemew and Bob Rickard, “Sloppy and excitable reporting dogged the event and undoubtedly contributed to the overall confusion in the wider public. For example, the Guardian reported that traces of blood and protein had been found in samples of urine taken from some of the children, possibly indicating kidney damage” (via “Mass Hysteria in Schools: A Worldwide History Since 1566“). It seemed misinformation around what actually was involved in the diagnosis of mass hysteria was prevalent in reporting — and still was during later re-investigations into the Hollinwell Incident, such as one the BBC did in 2003. 

According to Fortean Times, in response to the BBC’s documentary on the Hollinwell Incident that year, viewers made such statements as, “Mass hysteria is a way of covering up the truth.” With these misconceptions around what mass hysteria or sociogenic illness entails, it is not hard to see how the parents of the afflicted children would be furious, as “they resented, as they saw it, being labelled ‘weak-minded’ or worse (via Fortean Times).

With events like the Hollinwell Incident, it is hard enough to get to a conclusion within a typical investigation, but when one adds in the media frenzy, the conflicts between the public record and witnesses, and the continuous misinformation and misconceptions that abound, it is not at all surprising that the truth became subsumed within the wider hysteria of high-profile cases like these. 

Among the many missing pieces of information is the lack of knowledge of who, in fact, was the first child or adult to fall ill or faint, not to mention whether or not there were additions announcements made over the intercom after the warning about “joke jelly babies” that stoked the theories of food and drink poisoning. There was also a radio bulletin stating that a horse fell ill during the Hollinwell Incident, as did five other horses during a subsequent event. The animals reportedly had to be put down. Neither of these claims were confirmed as true by the organizers of the events and the investigators, according to Fortean Times. 

It also doesn’t help that no matter how conclusive an investigation is, there will still be those who refuse to believe the official explanation, whether due to misconceptions or outlying evidence that doesn’t quite fit the official record. Instead, we are left with a big question mark. As a parent of one of the affected children put it, “There has been a cover-up. Some people are still feeling ill, so how can it have been hysteria?” (via Fortean Times).