Not only hardcore

Last weekend by the decision of the Tagan inter-district prosecutor's office, the RAW Fest hardcore festival was canceled, which was supposed to take place in the territory of the Moscow Mars plant. Many saw in this sad news a continuation of the story with the breakdown of the Outline electronic festival . Maxim Dinkevich ( Sadway.com ) tells what the difference between these events and whether the breakdown of two major musical holidays speaks in a row in a row in a row about the existence of an unspoken conspiracy of the city authorities against independent music.

The conduct of hardcore-pans-concerts, as, in general, the raves-at least in the early stages of the formation of both crops-was always accompanied by the dissatisfaction of those who did not understand why it was necessary to twitch in convulsive dances, to cut into the microphone and force the guitar to sound like a chainsaw. IN The beginning of the 1980s in the USA, when Hardcore Punk just appeared, a rare similar concert did without the sudden appearance of unfriendly policemen. In the work of almost every hardcore group of that period, you can find more than one evil song about the arbitrariness of representatives of the authorities; No wonder the cover of the Get in the V An ” Henry Rollinza, ex-vocalist Black Flag , one of the key groups of the genre, is decorated with a photograph of armed law enforcement guards, built in front of the club entrance, where the Rollinz group performed along with Ramones.

In Russia, the most active phase of holding hardcore concerts fell on the zero years. If in the West by that time its own industry had been formed around loud and angry guitar music, and the hardcore Punk itself for more than a quarter of a century was a legitimate part of the world musical landscape, owners of Russian clubs, as a rule, rounded their eyes in horror, hearing requests to hold a hardcore concert in their institution.

The organizers of such shows had to look for an inexhaustible platforms and to shy their art director who did not fully understand what kind of music they were offered to deal with, or to hold closed shows in suburban forests, parks, bomb shelters, empty Soviet DCs and other places, to put it mildly, not too suitable for rock concerts.

Thus, the appearance on such events of the police, which at best fined the organizers for unauthorized noise and garbage, and at the worst could confiscate the apparatus, was, if not ordinary, then a completely expected business. However, in those years, the threat of a concert breakdown by representatives of the authorities was hardly the main one for domestic hardcores; The far -right hooligans were much more serious, who, if possible, tried to attack representatives of culture, which historically opposed xenophobia.

The arguments of the promoters that there will be no indicated groups at the concert, and the name of one of the teams is completely written with errors, people in the form were not convinced.

It was all - surveillance, persecution, attacks in transport and gateways, with cold weapons and without. For many lovers of aggressive and, as a rule, politicized guitar music, zero went under the sign of constant street clashes.

Unfortunately, in the second half of the decade in the toy war that seemed from the side between representatives of various youth subcultures, real sacrifices began to appear. Soon their number began to grow, and at a frightening speed. In 2008, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia created the Office for Combating Extremism (ED Center), which, among other things, included control and recruiting unbridled and desperate young people of various political views .

Since then, despite the fact that by the end of the zero hardcores managed to leave the underground, the authorities continue to closely observe subcultures; This year, the police came and stopped at least two large punk concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg for no obvious reasons. Also, most likely, at the insistence of the employees of the same Center “E” , the festival of football fans “The Spirit of the Old School” was canceled , which several times unsuccessfully tried to urgently transfer from the club to the club.

However, the organizers and participants of the RAW Fest , contrary to the suspicions repeatedly voiced on the network and on the radio , can hardly be accused of any radicalism (except for sound) and even more so extremism. Representatives of the festival captured their positions and views on the back of the input tickets on Raw Fest .

“We call for the unification of people who form an independent scene. We advocate an open dialogue - the only way to solve internal contradictions. We are also against prejudices and hatred. These are the positions of RAW Fest , ”the festival organizers told their guests.

It is possible to see in this paragraph of any political call, as well as finding it in the texts of groups declared at the festival, only if you look at everything that happens with deliberately curved optics. Or set the goal of identifying at least some flaw in the organization. Oddly enough, such an Achilles heel was still found, however, neither to the work of the teams with RAW Fest , she had nothing to do with the position of the organizers.

A couple of weeks before the concert, representatives of the festival published a post in the public (now it is deleted), in which they stated that their old acquaintance, registered by VKontakte under the nickname "Gymnasium valerka", under the threat of attempts to "legal abolition of the festival" demanded to remove RAW from Lineap RAW FEST two Ukrainian groups - Bluesbreaker and Kingpin .

According to the “gymnasium student”, these groups support the “fascists and killers of the civilian population of Donbass”, since in 2014 they performed at the United Ukraine Fest festival, which was held in support of the ATO of the ATO of the Ukrainian army. Later it turned out, however, that part of the funds raised at the concert went to purchase uniforms for Ukrainian soldiers, however, according to the organizers, the musicians Bluesbreaker and Kingpin adhere to pacifist views and learned about the non -purpose of spending the money collected.

RAW organizers Fest invited the blackmailer to eliminate the contradictions peacefully and chat with Ukrainian musicians to clarify their positions, as well as make a speech at the festival. The “gymnasium student”, however, refused it, later writing in the comments to the remote post that he had already talked enough with representatives of the Ukrainian hardcore scene and does not trust any of them.

Does this story say that representatives of the authorities are closely monitoring all major music festivals? Yes!

As a result, the musicians Bluesbreaker and Kingpin decided not to go to Moscow, and the post in the RAW group Fest , which set out the history of negotiations with the "gymnasium", was actively discussed by VKontakte users for several days; The record scored more than three thousand comments and several hundred reposts. Obviously, such a resonant post could not be left without attention from representatives of the authorities.

The day before the event, the leadership of the Mars plant, where the concert was supposed to take place, suddenly caused the organizers of RAW Fest for conversation. According to promoters, several people in the uniform and in civilian clothes handed them a form of the decision of the Tagan inter -district prosecutor’s office , which expressed a warning regarding the event at which the groups “ Kingpin and Blues S Break S R , who participated in the collection of funds for the needs of the ATO”.

“The current situation can lead to mass illegal actions of an extremist nature,” the document said.

The arguments of the promoters that there will be no indicated groups at the concert, and the name of one of the teams is completely written with errors, people in the form were not convinced. In order to avoid further problems, the interlocutors of the organizers advised them to cancel the festival at Mars, and also not try to transfer it to another place. In fairness, it is worth noting that he demanded to cancel the performance of Ukrainian groups on RAW Fest "Gymnasium" soon declared on his VKontakte page that he had nothing to do with the breakdown of the festival . The opponent of the Ukrofashist’s arrival in Russia claims that the organizers of the concert were firing his words with the aim of discrediting, but it is impossible to check this statement - the conversation between the “gymnasium student” was not recorded with the promoters. Like the Outline festival, RAW Fest was canceled less than a day before the start.

Does this story say that government representatives are closely monitoring all major music festivals (about 12,000 people were going to come to Outline , RAW Fest - almost 3000)?

No doubt, yes - according to RAW representatives Fest , the next morning after they published a post about the reasons for the abolition of the concert , the publication for an unknown reason disappeared, I had to change the wording to a more neutral one . Does this mean that in Moscow it will no longer be able to hold a single noticeable concert with the participation of foreign musicians? It is hardly: several artists who were supposed to perform on the canceled Outline played in the weekend before last at other city venues; The same thing happened with foreign groups from the RAW Linap Fest - representatives of two Moscow clubs agreed to be accepted by emergency (though without indicating the name " RAW Fest ” and any advertisement).

What exactly to do and how to behave in such an unfriendly time for an independent culture is not entirely clear. What you definitely do not need to do is to be afraid and give up. Rather, when organizing festivals, you need to be only very careful and attentive.