On the concert portal of the event company Eventim, the world is still in order. All concerts by Roger Waters are on offer there. The pros and cons of the 79-year-old Englishman’s statements are discussed extensively in the comments section. The cancellation of the Waters gig in Frankfurt ordered by the municipal operators of the Festhalle is not mentioned at all. An indication that the lawyers have taken up positions behind the scenes.
According to the information portal of Bayrischer Rundfunk (BR), the economic committee of the Bavarian capital is dealing with this cause on Tuesday (March 14). There is a “decision proposal” in which Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) should ask the municipal management of “Olympiapark München GmbH” not to allow the monumental Waters spectacle to take place in the first place.
Across factions, the SPD, Volt, Green and Pink List in Munich agree with the CSU and the Free Voters to support their mayor in the rejection request.
Financial aspects are likely to play a role in the debate, as do legal ones. The arenas in Cologne, Hamburg and Cologne are privately owned. These are at odds with the respective local politics.
“Purely legally,” the operators unanimously say, Roger Waters Live cannot be prevented. At best, you could impose conditions. It is conceivable that Waters would not be allowed to let his rubber pig decorated with the Stars of David rise. That, too, would have to be checked elsewhere from a legal point of view, whether it is permissible as “freedom of art”. A lot of basic work for law professors and Co.
If a cancellation is not feasible for reasons such as these, the Munich SPD and colleagues from the Greens want to take symbolic action. According to reports in the local press, flags from Israel and Ukraine could be hoisted in May, the nearby Olympic Tower illuminated accordingly, or leaflets distributed to old hands of Pink Floyd in front of the hall.
As in other cities, comprehensive legal opinions should clarify how conspiracy pop stars could be dealt with in the future.
Meanwhile, reports are circulating that the UK grantler muttered in a stage announcement at a US concert of the US leg of This Is Not a Drill tour: “If you’re here because you like Pink Floyd but you like the politics of Roger Waters refuses, then piss off at the bar as quickly as possible.” As is well known, the Pink Floyd co-founder rarely avoids a cultivated Zoff. For example, all interviews that were scheduled to settle the conflict backfired. As in the “Berliner Zeitung”, for example, he always followed up.
All the more astonishing is the petition started by initiator Katie Halper on the platform change.org AGAINST the already ordered cancellation of the concert in Frankfurt. It says:
“We artists, musicians, writers and other public figures and organizations are deeply concerned by the recent efforts by German authorities to discredit and silence musician Roger Waters. On February 24, 2023, the Frankfurt City Council and the Hessian state government announced the cancellation of a concert that Waters planned to give on May 28 in the Festhalle.”
It goes on there:
“The cancellation of the concert is ‘a clear signal against anti-Semitism’, according to the Frankfurt magistrate, who describes the musician as ‘one of the most widespread anti-Semites in the world’. As evidence, the council cites that Waters “repeatedly called for a cultural boycott of Israel, drew comparisons to the apartheid regime in South Africa and pressured artists to cancel events in Israel.”
“Apart from these two claims, there is no other evidence: that Waters supported the Palestinian-led campaign to culturally boycott Israel, and that he compared the current Israeli government to the apartheid regime in South Africa.”
According to the petition, which so far has been supported by almost 4,000 people on the morning of March 14 (and the trend is rising), accusations of apartheid are also appearing elsewhere:
“NONE of these claims are unique to Waters or outside the bounds of public opinion. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Israeli organization B’Tselem, United Nations agencies and South African officials have referred to Israel as an apartheid state, and as such many of these organizations and individuals have drawn the comparison between Israel and apartheid-era South Africa. “
It can be assumed that the controversy surrounding the artist Roger Waters will intensify. This Is Not A Drill kicks off this weekend in Lisbon. There were also protests there.