It appears as if music fans who had been attending the Community Cup on Sunday at Elsternwick Park in Melbourne got a bit more than they had counted on when several carloads of police from what appeared to be a Victoria Police Response Squad turned up at Ripponlea’s Lyrebird Lounge to break up proceedings. Venue representatives Tone Deaf spoke to today say it wasn’t an elaborate ploy by the house band, Bittersweet Kicks, to build their already healthy local bad boys profile, rather it appears that the police seemed to overreact on one unnecessary complaint.
According to venue representative Campbell Halliday, three carloads of police arrived in ‘response outfits’ to reports that the venue was overcrowded and that the crowd outside was blocking traffic. He says that the venue was busy and enjoying a usual boisterous set from the Bittersweet Kicks, but the crowd was well behaved and the footpath wasn’t blocked by punters, let alone traffic on the road.
One punter, who shall remain unnamed but is believed to be the singer of a local band that wasn’t playing at the venue on the day, was arrested after arking up at police and had to spend several hours sobering up in the cells before being released. An onlooker told Tone Deaf that the crowd was peaceful when the police made their way in to the venue and that no further arrests were made. A request to Victoria Police’s media unit for further information on what appeared to be a pretty heavy handed response to a crowd going off to a band was not returned by deadline. Check out the pics from the incident here:
Photos by Christopher Rimmer
