Yesterday, August 15th, an alleged altercation between Inga Mauer and security guards working Flow Festival in Helsinki, Finland erupted into a worldwide controversy. For the first time since the incident, the Russian DJ and producer has disclosed her side of the story.
In a post to her Facebook profile, Mauer firstly addressed the recent raid of Moscow DIY nightclub Rabitza before giving her own account of what transpired at Flow Festival after her set on August 12th. “What happend [sic] this past Saturday night in Helsinki feels like a tragicomedy,” she wrote. “In Finland from all places, in one of the most civilized European countries.”
According to Mauer, she had sat down with a friend and her friend’s boyfriend to eat when guards demanded that she relocate. She abided, and was asked to move once more by other guards, and when she laughed about the situation two of them restrained her and forced her to the ground. After a struggle that left her with mild injuries, she was detained and jailed until the following day, when police officers drove her back to her hotel.
“i [sic] am not okay,” she wrote. “I am covered with bruises, it hurts all over. I cannot sleep, hug or even laugh. It hurts.”
Mauer’s version of the story corroborated that of Canadian electronic music producer Marie Davidson, who witnessed much of the incident and alleged that guards physically removed her when she tried to help. In addition, her friend’s boyfriend apparently captured video of much of what took place on his phone.
Yesterday, Flow Festival’s three partners – Suvi Kallio, Tuomas Kallio and Toni Rantanen – had already issued an apologetic statement of their own yesterday. “We are truly sorry for what Inga Mauer and Marie Davidson had to go through,” a passage of the post to Rantanen’s Facebook profile reads. “Luckily we have video, photos and eyewitnesses. As festival organisers, we take responsibility of this incident and will make sure everything will be investigated and taken care of properly.”
The guards who allegedly assaulted Inga Mauer reportedly belonged to the security subcontractor Local Crew Oy, whom Rantanen claims have been hired by Flow Festival’s organizers in previous years with no similar incidents.
Source: Resident Advisor
