Security Allegedly Assaults Artist At Flow Festival

DJ Inga Mauer was reportedly assaulted and thrown out of the premises of Flow Festival, which took place in Helsinki, Finland, Aug. 11-13. It is not yet clear what caused security to tackle the artist.  

KopterCam / Petri Anthill – Flow Festival
in Finland

The festival’s promoters – Suvi Kallio, Tuomas Kallio and Toni Rantanen – told Fact that an investigation into the matter had been launched. “Luckily we have video, photos and eyewitnesses.

As festival organizers, we take responsibility of this incident and will make sure everything will be investigated and taken care of properly,” their statement reads.

Marie Davidson, another DJ and friend of Inga Mauer who was playing the festival, witnessed the commotion and described it in a Facebook post: “Last night in Helsinki I witnessed a bunch of security guys hold a girl on the ground while she was screaming. As I approached to try to help, I found out that this girl was actually my friend Inga Mauer, an artist who had played a killer set only 2 hours before. She said they violently dragged her out of one of the festival area because she refused to leave right away.”

Futura Artists, the booking agency representing both Mauer and Davidson, issued the following statement: “Last Saturday 12th of August Inga Mauer was brutally beaten up by the security team at Flow Festival Helsinki. She was taken off festival site by the same team and handed over to the police, who arrested her and took her to a police station where she was forced to spend the night and cut off any communication. Police didn’t want to inform in which station she was. She was released until Sunday morning.

“It also needs to be mentioned that the security team actively took action against people who wanted to intervene in the situation, as Marie Davidson did, and was pushed away and kicked out of the festival.”

The promoters’ statement to Fact continues: “Compensation for the victims must follow and something similar can never ever happen again. The security company has been a trusted subcontractor for many years but now they have failed to do their job in the right manner.”

The lineup of this year’s Flow Festival included Lana Del Rey, Aphex Twin, Young Thug, London Grammar, Flume, The xx, Frank Ocean, Vince Staples, Moderat and many more.

A short but heavy storm on the Saturday caused some performances, like the one by Danny Brown, to be interrupted.

Others, such as sets by Timo Lassy Band, Mikko Joensuu, Janka Nabay & The Bubu Gang, Sampha and Front 242, had to be canceled, as it took the organizers some time to ensure the safety of the smaller stages in particular.