Balitmore-based dance event Moonrise Festival has come under scrutiny amidst claims that security guards bribed punters for money, threatening to kick them out of the festival in the process.
The claims, which were posted on the event’s Facebook page and published in Magnetic Magazine, began flooding in when one concert-goer complained that a security guard had threatened to cut off his wristband unless he payed him $20.
“So I sitting at Grammatik with my crew smoking a cig and 2 security guards came up to us and say $20 or I’m cutting off your wristband. I know your smoking weed, I’ve been getting that shit from everybody! How you gonna bribe me like that and threaten me! Get the fuck outta here thank god I was sitting with right people! Anybody else have this problem?” read the post.
The complaint opened the floodgates for countless more reports of mistreatment with another statement claiming that:
“Some friends and I entered the festival. They wanted to show me this cool spot, and as we got over there we noticed some security tailing us. We sat inside the little woven huts where groups of people were smoking, and the security tapped us and told us to give them $20 or any drugs we had in order to stay in the festival. Then they proceeded to do it to everyone else there.”
Other people reported that they were forced to cough up as much as $50 in order to maintain their spot in the festival grounds.
The company responsible for the security at the festival was CSS Security, but other agencies are believed to have been involved with the maintenance of the event.
Event organisers took to Facebook yesterday to respond to the complaints, stating “We ask that anyone who had any issue with security personnel on site please contact us immediately at SecurityIssues@MoonriseFestival.com with full details, including a description of the individual, what they were wearing, where the issue took place, and what happened.” See below for full statement.
The problem of security misconduct is becoming all too common at festivals, with In Hearts Wake front-man recently Jake Taylor stopping the band’s set mid-song to help a punter who was being roughly handled by a guard. In addition to this, I myself witnessed a security guard groping a female punter at a music festival this year, only to laugh it off as a joke afterwards.
With a huge summer festival season looming, we can only hope we don’t have to report on any similar stories in the near future.
Images: Inset- Magnetic Mag
Thumbnail- Your DM