In Russia’s Vladimir region, police officers together with members of the Russian Community organization carried out a raid during the Sliyanie electronic music festival (D-Fusion fest). The local outlet Dovod reported this. The festival had been taking place since July 9 in a forest near the town of Pokrov.
According to the Telegram channel Ostorozhno, Novosti, during the night of July 10 to 11, festivalgoers began warning one another that traffic police officers were stationed at the entrance to the forest. Later, according to that account, it emerged that “about 10 police officers and the Russian Community” had arrived.
Witnesses said some attendees were checked for drugs. A source cited by Dovod said several people were detained. According to that source, the security officers explained their visit by saying that festival participants were “too loud and burn too much gasoline, teasing people amid a fuel shortage.”
A source quoted by Ostorozhno, Novosti gave a different detail: in that version, security officers detained a local resident who arrived drunk with a gun and threatened a family that had refused to hand over alcohol.
On the morning of July 11, the festival’s Telegram channel published a notice saying the stages had been suspended “for objective reasons.” Organizers also said they were holding “talks with the responsible authorities to get the equipment back and restore the work of the stages.”
“We heard your feedback and the requests of neighbors, and we made the difficult decision to limit the sound level at the locations to a comfortable and safe level,” the organizers said later that evening, adding that the “performance had gone beyond acceptable limits.”
The festival had originally been expected to end in its previous format on July 12.