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While Dudka doesn’t offer much detail in his post, festival spokesman Trevor Murphy confirmed Allie O’Manique’s account of what transpired.

O’Manique says the problems started when the volunteer female photographer refused to step away from her spot near the front. It led to a clash with nearby audience members who became angered over her insistence on remaining near the stage to take photos, says O’Manique, who performs as dream-pop act Trails and shares management with Pimienta.

“She just kept saying, ‘Move to the back,”‘ says O’Manique.

You're cutting into my set time and you're disrespecting these women, and I don't have time for this

“Finally after saying it about 10 times — and the woman refused to move — (Pimienta) said, ‘You’re cutting into my set time and you’re disrespecting these women, and I don’t have time for this.”‘

Event organizers say the volunteer was removed from the show and ultimately chose to sever ties with the festival.

Pimienta’s management did not respond to requests for comment.

Julia-Simone Rutgers, one of the Halifax women invited by Pimienta to shift closer to the stage, says she was surprised by the photographer’s refusal to move.

Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Donovan

“There’s a certain understanding that if an artist asks a crowd to do something … the artist is in charge in that space,” she says.

The clash was emblematic of the opinion that prioritizing people of colour — particularly women — is “reverse racist,” says Rutgers.

“It’s those mindsets that create that sort of pushback at the shows,” she says.

“I don’t know if I would say it can be attributed to the crowd Pop Explosion gets, or more so just the sort of people that exist in Halifax and the mindsets that prevail here.”