[EN IMAGES] Dangerous behavior denounced at the Metro Metro Festival

The authorities deplore the dangerous actions, which could have turned tragic, of certain participants in the Metro Metro Festival this weekend who climbed on the Olympic Stadium or caused crowd movements to enter concerts without paying.

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“Of course, we explicitly condemn this kind of behavior which, in addition to being illegal, can be very dangerous,” says Cédric Essiminy, spokesman for the Olympic Park.

The latter was reacting to videos that went viral over the weekend that were filmed at the Metro Metro hip-hop music festival. On certain sequences, we see festival-goers going straight up to the stadium to sneak into the event which was taking place on the esplanade of the Olympic Park.

“We have over 160 cameras scattered across our site, active 24/7. Any intrusion is filmed and listed. Nearly 250 security guards were on site during the festival. A post-mortem will be made this week on the event”, assures Mr. Essiminy.

The worst avoided

In other images posted on the Instagram platform, we see agitated participants knocking down a gate held down by security guards hired by the festival.

A movement of the crowd then knocks young people to the ground, while others run towards the site where you can attend concerts.

“Travis Scott! Travis Scott! Travis Scott! Yeah, gang shit!” yells the man filming this overflow scene. The latter refers here to the movement of the crowd during a show by Travis Scott which made in the United States.

Transferred to emergency

Sébastien Coulombe, spokesperson for Urgences-Santé, also mentions to the Journal that six people who participated in the festival had to be transported to the emergency room this weekend. “Unfortunately, I don’t know the nature of the interventions,” he says.

For its part, the Montreal Police Service (SPVM) confirms that it has arrested at least five festival-goers.

The mayor reacts

Contacted on this subject, the cabinet of the mayoress Valérie Plante affirms that it deplores these overflows.

“The City of Montreal asked the promoter and the management of the Olympic Park to present a contingency plan in the event of overflows before accepting the holding of the event, which was done in good and due form, because they are responsible for ensuring and maintaining security on their site”, mentions the Cabinet.

“We will be in contact with the organizers to determine what could be put in place to avoid this type of overflow. [à l’avenir]“, we add.

The head of media relations for the Metro Metro Festival, Philip Vanden Brande, was stingy with comments.

“Any security-related event is subsequently assessed and the images are analyzed in their overall context. Know that we take any event very seriously and the safety of all is our priority,” he wrote in a brief email sent to the Log.