German festival removed Alphaville band for words against AfD. Campino invited Marian Gold to the stage the same evening

The German festival Glücksgefühle at the Hockenheimring circuit removed the band Alphaville from its program. The reason was that its singer Marian Gold had previously made political statements. n-tv ↗

This happened in mid-July at another event organized by the same organizer, Markus Krampe Entertainment Group. Gold stated there that it must not happen that "Nazis take our country from us"; according to n-tv, the band clearly distanced itself from the AfD with this. Krampe's company subsequently announced that Alphaville would not perform at the festival. n-tv ↗

The statement read: "We do not tolerate political topics or statements of any kind on our stage." The festival described itself as completely apolitical, meant to be entertainment and "good vibes only". The organizers added that Alphaville had been asked beforehand not to engage politically on stage, and they did not agree. The band had already performed at two other concerts by the same organizers that year and made political statements there as well — Gold distanced himself from far-right tendencies in the introduction to the song Carry Your Flag and committed himself to freedom, tolerance, and democracy. WDR ↗

The organizer justified it publicly as follows: "Our stage is not a platform for political statements, regardless of the direction the statement points: right, left, or any other political direction." n-tv ↗

Gold responded sharply on Instagram. He wrote that the justification amounted to "muzzling — all too well known to us from dictatorships", and called it a clear attack on freedom of opinion, speech, and art. n-tv ↗

That same evening came a response directly from Münster — the city where Alphaville comes from. Die Toten Hosen performed their last Münster concert there on Wednesday in front of 25,000 people as part of their farewell tour Trink Aus! Wir Müssen Gehen and had two guests prepared: first they called Ingo Knollmann from the local band Donots to the stage, then Marian Gold. WDR ↗ Campino called the festival's decision "absurd" in front of the audience and said that a "new line had been crossed". Donots also shared his statement on their Instagram. WDR ↗

Under public pressure, the organizer backed down. "The way we acted was really a mistake. I'm sorry about that," said festival organizer Krampe to the newspaper Bild, and Alphaville was reinvited — according to his own words not as a gesture of concession, but as a conscious decision for what unites people. The event's co-organizer, footballer Lukas Podolski, also joined in: "I'm glad Markus reconsidered the decision and clearly said it was a mistake." WDR ↗

The band declined the invitation anyway. "We acknowledge the apology and new invitation from organizer Markus Krampe and hope that from now on the significance of freedom of speech and art will be properly respected at the Glücksgefühle festival," Gold stated. "However, regardless of this, the preceding statements created an atmosphere in which we are refraining from performing." The band is donating the fee for the concert that did not take place to a non-profit organization. WDR ↗

It didn't end there. DJ Beauty & the Beats from Kiel also canceled his performance. "Standing up for our democracy, diversity, human rights, and against right-wing extremism has — contrary to the festival's opinion — absolutely nothing to do with politics, it is simply normal civic courage," he wrote. Unlike Alphaville, he will receive nothing: since he canceled himself, the fee does not belong to him. n-tv ↗



Illustration photo: Ren Hekkonens / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0