An image of a man wearing shorts with the confederate flag on them has been circulating on social media after it was taken at Bluesfest, in Ottawa.

It has prompted calls for an explanation of why he was allowed in, and some want an apology from Bluesfest.

Amanda Lowe, a Bluesfest volunteer, snapped the photo at a concert on Thursday.

Lowe tweeted the picture, and says seeing someone wearing the flag made her fearful.

“We were just really just scared and taken aback that he was let in wearing those,” says Lowe.

There have been calls to ban the flag in the United States after the alleged shooter in Charleston, posed with one, before killing 9 people in a racially motivated massacre.

After much debate the confederate flag has been removed from the grounds of the legislature in South Carolina.

The man in the Bluesfest photo has been identified as Robert Rusaw, of Massena, New York.

On Facebook, he writes, "Your right to be offended ends when it interferes with my right to fly the flag I want to fly or with the clothes I want to wear!!!!!"

An organization called Black Lives Matter Ottawa, has started an online petition, requesting, among other things, an apology from Bluesfest for allowing the man entry to its show.

In a statement today Bluesfest said, "The man photographed at Bluesfest on July 9 wearing a pair of shorts displaying the Confederate flag is not affiliated with Bluesfest. He is not an employee, a volunteer or a member of any organization working directly for Bluesfest."