The incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The founder of Victorian dance festival Earthcore, Spiro Boursine, has died in police custody following an altercation in a bar in Melbourne on Saturday morning.

According to reports in The Age, police and paramedics were called to Antique Bar in the inner Melbourne suburb of Elsternwick at 2.00am on Saturday morning, after they received reports of a 45-year-old man — now identified as Boursine — abusing patrons and “acting violently”.

Several patrons had reportedly pinned Boursine to the ground, who was then handcuffed by police. Boursine allegedly lost consciousness while he was in police custody, and despite efforts by paramedics to revive him he later died at the scene. A crime scene has since been set up at Antique Bar.

Boursine had been at the helm of Earthcore since it began back in 1992, growing it from a small bush doof into one of the biggest dates on the dance festival calendar.

Former general manager of Earthcore, Gary ‘Binaural’ Neal, told The Age that Spiro created a subculture in Australia.

“[He] created a subculture in Australia that turned in to one of the biggest alternative community followings that I think Australia’s got within the dance scene,” Mr Neal said. “I mean, it created dance, it created fashion … it became a lifestyle for many, many people.

“Without Spiro, we wouldn’t have that.”