This year the Venoge Festival will take place again in Penthaz (canton VD). At first glance, it seems to have a pretty extensive lineup, something for everyone.
However, three things (especially the last one) have made me wonder:
1. One of the main acts – Limp Bizkit – have cancelled the whole European tour due to health reasons of the singer. Therefore they will not play at this festival. This was also mentioned on the official site in a news post – but that’s it. They are still shown in the program of Wednesday and also in the detail view of the artists they are still listed. This will surely cause a rush, so that someone still buys the tickets and shortly finds out that this band will not play at all. Ticket redemptions are excluded in case of band cancellations.
2. Further, I find it very special – especially after the two intense Covid years – to be able to buy tickets for the next two, three and five years, as well as for life (long term passes). Personally, I wouldn’t dare to do that, especially because there is no information about it, in case the festival is cancelled completely or even cancelled forever (I didn’t find anything on the fly).
3. However, I find the Saturday act – Emir Kusturica & the non smoking orchestra – the most weird thing. Emir Kusturica may be known to some, as he is especially active as a director and has already won in Cannes, as well as being a part of the jury there.
Politically, he is very right-wing oriented. Among other things, he sings (praises) about Radovan Karadzic, who has since been sentenced to genocide. Currently he is quite pro-Russian and pro-Putin. A concert announced in Barcelona earlier this year was cancelled for this very reason: https://www.catalannews.com/culture/item/emir-kusturica-concert-cancelled-as-venue-condemns-russia-s-war-on-ukraine
What do you think about this? Even in Germany this was a concern: https://www.gfbv.de/de/news/stop-the-propaganda-for-war-criminal-karadzic-on-the-munich-concert-stage-4215/
1 comment
This post. Wow.