The Ottawa Fringe Festival has confirmed it received reports that two people’s drinks were drugged over the festival’s final weekend in June and is apologizing for its “handling of the issue to date.”
The festival addressed the incident — which allegedly occurred in a festival tent — for the first time publicly in a statement on Monday, signed by the Ottawa Fringe board and staff.
Despite this, the incident was reported to the Ottawa police as soon as the issues were raised with festival staff and the organization is taking the reports “very seriously,” the online statement said.
“We sincerely apologize if our handling of the issue to date has caused any mistrust and disappointment in the community,” the statement said.
“We understand that it may take some time to earn back your trust. We are reviewing our policies and carefully considering our incident response going forward.
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A spokesperson for the Ottawa Police Service confirmed that police were advised of the incident. The investigation into the matter is ongoing, Const. Amy Gagnon said.
The 2019 edition of the Ottawa Fringe Festival ran from June 13 to June 23. The event uses several venues in downtown Ottawa.
“We pride ourselves on making the Fringe a safe and inclusive space for everyone, and are committed to doing better going forward to keep our community safe and to do our best to prevent future incidents,” Monday’s statement said.
The statement did not specify what day the incident occurred, nor the exact location. It’s also not clear from the statement whether the drugged drinks were consumed.
In a separate statement emailed to Global News on Monday afternoon, the festival’s board of directors declined to answer further questions about the incident.
“The Ottawa Fringe Festival takes very seriously the safety of our artists and patrons,” said the statement, provided by festival spokesperson Amanda Logan. “We continue to work towards providing the most inclusive and safe environment for our community and will continue to regularly review our existing safety policies. We commit to doing everything in our power to keep our artists, staff and patrons safe.”
“As this matter has been reported to the Ottawa police, we are no longer answering questions at this time.”
Gagnon said police won’t release any more details about the reported incident while the investigation continues.