Sol Fest creates chaos – WJHG
by June 5, 2024HOLMES COUNTY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -UPDATE:
Monday, as we followed up on the chaos from Sol Fest, the first authorities we reached out to was the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office. They told our reporter they would not speak on the subject until Tuesday.
We are sending a reporter to Holmes County today (Tuesday) to get their reaction and will have an update on NewsChannel 7 at 5 and 6.
Sol Fest is over but its impacts can still be felt. The EDM music and arts festival ended in several arrests and some Ponce De Leon school closures due to expected traffic.
Monday morning Holmes County Sheriff’s officials patrolled Highway 80 and Ponce De Leon helping direct heavy traffic due to an influx of people leaving the area.
The event brought in thousands of people and unfortunately some trouble.
Holmes County Sheriff’s officials arrested more than 50 people for possession of drugs including cocaine, ecstasy, mushrooms, molly, marijuana and more.
James Michael Anderson was one of the suspects arrested who bit a chunk out of a deputy’s head and even tried to grab his gun. He is charged with aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest with violence.
Austin Boughner was at Sol Fest helping keep the area clean by picking up trash. He said guests felt targeted by local law enforcement.
“I feel like their intentions here were different than intentions at other festivals I’ve seen police officers,” Boughner said. “I see a lot of collectives of police officers at festivals that are smiling and having fun and they’re here to actually make sure people are safe not hunting us and I feel like a lot of people in the festival felt they were being hunted instead of protected.”
Autumn Cromer said despite the arrests she felt safe at the festival.
“There’s always going to be positivity and there’s going to be negativity,” Cromer said. “It’s just part of how the world works and the universe works you can’t have good without the bad, but for the most part the festival was nothing but like higher vibrational people, people loving each other and supporting each other.”
NewsChannel 7 reached out to the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office for comment on Sol Fest. We were told officials were unavailable on Monday and were invited to Tuesday’s commission meeting.
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