Kontufest music festival’s future may be in jeopardy after Saturday’s public brawl and fire
“People just started to cheer in front of the fire as the flames grew higher”
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Saturday’s music festival Kontufest in Helsinki’s eastern suburb of Kontula ended in a brawl and a pile of brushwood being deliberately set alight.
By Sunday morning, however, the signs of the previous night’s squabble had been cleared away. The Kelkkapuisto Park, where the music festival was organised, had been cleaned up by members of a local sports team.
On Saturday night, trouble started after the evening’s last act, a Finnish rap artist Notkea Rotta (“Supple Rat”), had finished his set at nine o’clock.
Troublemakers occupied the area directly in front of the stage and all sorts of quarrelsome individuals started jumping around.
As people were filing out of the festival area, somebody set a pile of brushwood alight next to the park. "People just started to cheer in front of the fire as the flames grew in height, and eventually a mass brawl broke out”, explains Jyri Möttö, a 15-year-old festival guest.
According to Möttö, in the fight individuals from Kontula scuffled with people from Malmi, another Helsinki district.
The festival had attracted a lot of people from Eastern Helsinki. Even the evening’s last two acts, Steen1 and Notkea Rotta, were rappers from the local area.
The situation quickly escalated into general mayhem. The police closed off the road and monitored the situation. Eventually fire trucks were allowed through and the firemen began to put out the fire. By then, around two hundred people were present in front of the fire.
“Some people were hit over the head with bottles. Someone had a knuckleduster in his hand. The security guards used their pepper sprays. The police officers, too, were taking part in containing the situation at this point.”
According to the police, some of the festival guests behaved aggressively towards them and the firemen, but strictly speaking the authorities were not resisted in their work. The unsettled atmosphere continued later in the evening near the Kontula Metro station.
Security chief Juri Pakarinen from the security services firm Local Crew explains that the actual gathering went even more peacefully than last year.
“Some individuals had to be removed from the area because of use of intoxicants, but during the event itself no individuals were apprehended by the police.”
Pakarinen estimates that as a free public event the Kontufest has reached the end of its road. One possibility would be to fence in the festival area and charge admission.
Minister of Culture Paavo Arhinmäki (Left Alliance), who was also present, disagrees.
“Something like this is always regrettable, but it should not be allowed to affect the future of the event. The Kontufest has long traditions as a free-of-charge event in Eastern Helsinki, and this mustn’t be allowed to change that.”
According to Arhinmäki, similar free events are needed in the future as well.
The popularity of the free event took the organisers by surprise.
Around 2,500 visitors were expected, but in the end the attendance figure was closer to 7,000.
According to estimates by the public, only around 20 security guards had been reserved for the happening.
The afternoon and the early evening in the festival area went peacefully enough.
The audience consisted of people of all ages, including families with children.
This had been taken into account even in the selection of artists on the bill.
The festival was substance-free, with no bar on the site. In reality, however, this rule was not supervised, as the park was accessible from every direction.
Sure enough, towards the end of the evening many of the audience members were already thoroughly wasted.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 22.8.2011 - TODAY |
 Kontufest music festival’s future may be in jeopardy after Saturday’s public brawl and fire |
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