diff --git a/pymysqlreplication/event.py b/pymysqlreplication/event.py
index 97ff5817..027b5fb8 100644
--- a/pymysqlreplication/event.py
+++ b/pymysqlreplication/event.py
@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ def __init__(self, from_packet, event_size, table_map, ctl_connection, **kwargs)
         self.packet.advance(1)
 
         self.query = self.packet.read(event_size - 13 - self.status_vars_length
-                                      - self.schema_length - 1).decode("utf-8")
+                                      - self.schema_length - 1).decode(ctl_connection.charset)
         #string[EOF]    query
 
     def _dump(self):