Russian Authorities Have Cancelled Moscow's Outline Festival

Russian authorities have cancelled Moscow's Outline Festival. The event was set to begin Saturday night.

Late yesterday afternoon, festival organizers announced the cancellation on their Facebook page. "The Festival will be held not beyond the control of the organizers of the reasons," the organizers posted. "The money for the tickets will be returned."

According to Russian media reports, the festival organizers failed to meet requirements for fire safety and permitting. However, festival organizers and performers reject this claim. On her Facebook page, Magda said, "This afternoon government officials entered the Outline grounds unannounced and prevented the organizers and works from setting up the festival's stages, installations and infrastructure–despite the fact that Outline applied for and received all permits and licenses necessary to throw the event in a legally appropriate amount of time."

Police were later sent to what would have been the site of the festival (Moscow's MoZAL plant) to control a crowd of about 20 people in fear of any public protests or rioting.

Scheduled performers for the event included Ricardo Villalobos, Rhadoo, Daniel Bell, Magda, Ron Morelli, and Varg. Outline first originated in 2009 and expanded to a two-day festival in 2014. Last month, we asked The Mole what to expect during our first trip to Moscow for Outline.

Britt Julious is on Twitter.