Flow festival bracelet trick prompts nine fraud reports

Police recorded nine reports of petty fraud after Flow festival attendees in Helsinki used a method that allowed the same access bracelet to be used by several people, Yle reports. The festival itself proceeded peacefully considering its size.

The weekend event at Suvilahti in Helsinki attracted about 91,000 visitors. Most police duties at the festival and in nearby areas involved drugs and various disturbances, the Helsinki Police Department said.

People who had bought festival tickets and collected their bracelets were able to slide them off without breaking the locking mechanism. This allowed them to pass the same bracelet to another person for entry.

“The cases have been different. Bracelets have been passed directly to the next person, and there have also been cases where they were thrown over a fence or delivered in some other way,” Helsinki police detective chief inspector Anssi Enqvist told Yle.

Enqvist said there were slightly more such cases this year than last year.

Police also recorded 32 drug use offences and five drug offences linked to the festival. That was about half as many drug use offences as last year, when 63 were recorded. Cocaine use accounted for most of the cases uncovered by police at this year’s Flow festival.

Police removed about 20 people from the festival grounds and detained 15. Nine were detained to prevent crimes and disturbances, while six were detained to investigate offences.