Altercation Between Sonar Security and Concert Goers at Maryland Deathfest 2011

Maryland Deathfest was one of my highlights of last year, unfortunately I was unable to afford it this year although it may have been safer that I sit this one out. While insomniacly scanning Twitter out of boredom I stumbled upon the following few "Tweets" found below by Kim Kelly aka "Grim Kim" well known metal writer and pr pro. Allegedly the security at Sonar (the venue that hosts the festival who recently lost their liquor license and almost closed their doors) pepper sprayed and bloodied up some innocent concert goers at the fest late last night.

The only other mention I could find was about a bloody fight that happened outside of the venue which may have sparked the incident with the Sonar Security. It's amazing how Twitter has become the immediate source for breaking news. This is definitely the type of news that needs the uncensored voice that social media provides. Although it may not be an official "source" Kim Kelly is a huge presence in the metal scene and an amazing and professional writer so I'm prone to take her word on these incidents. I'll update this post whenever anything new comes up.

*update: Here is a post from the official MDF board made by Ryan one of the festival organizers, you can read the full post and more after the jump. Plus check the comment section for some 1st had accounts, including one from someone who says he actually worked at the fest and experienced some abuse himself:

"Well, from what I've gathered from some people connected to Sonar, this sounds like a couple of bad seeds working security that just lost their composure, and instead of just pinning down a trouble maker and carrying him away from a place where people are congregating and trying to leave peacefully, they used mace without really needing to. As someone else said, it's unfair to consider all of these guys "thugs", especially the countless guys that we've worked with there for 5 or 6 years now, as we know they wouldn't use excessive force for the sake of being a tough guy.


Ultimately, mace will NEVER be allowed on any security guard ever again at MDF, except for 1 responsible head person that knows when they REALLY need to use it, which will likely be never. From what I was told, the mace incident out front stemmed from someone saying he was going to kill a cop, but still, the best remedy to the problem would have just taken only a few of the numerous security guys sitting down around the entrance and just carrying him away from the area without making much of a scene...

I'm personally extremely pissed off that this even happened. Considering the size of the event, somehow a bad seed or two slips into the picture each year, and it sucks that it had to fuck up the ending of what was otherwise a smooth fest for us. That being said, mace can fuck off, and the guys that were behind this scene last night can also fuck off. They won't be part of this event ever again. "

GrimKim Kim Kelly The Sonar security guards just BRUTALIZED some kids for no reason!!!!!! Total abuse of power!!! Fucked up!!!
(around 1:57am 5/30/11 Baltimore time)

GrimKim Kim Kelly Sonar security peppersprayed a ton of INNOCENT PEOPLE and BEAT several more. Where are the police? What IS this? Terror everywhere
(around 2:11am 5/30/11 Baltimore time)