Lithuanian metal music festival Devilstone Open Air 2010, which took place in the little town of Anyksciai on July 16-18, has gained serious criticism from the religious community. The Prosecution Service is pre-investigating whether the festival provoked something called "religious disunion".
The festival was a hit with Lithuania's metal community and the locals, except, it seems, the religious community of the town. A group of local Catholics and the Dean of the local church publicly expressed their opponent attitude towards the festival. They initiated a pre-trial investigation accusing the festival and/or the festival’s Headline ACT Mayhem of provoking religious disunion.
Local Catholics and the Dean declared their religious feelings had been insulted as they witnessed the photos of the band’s performance where the sartorial GOD that is Atilla Csihar wore a cassock, had an Inverted Cross, a bloody Mask and a Gallows loop as part of his onstage costume.
The Dean applied to the Ministry of Justice, which in turn forwarded the case back to the local Prosecution Service in Anyksciai. The pre-trial investigation is in the process and the organisers of the festival are scheduled to express their statement next week.
Meanwhile such an unprecedented case has been highlighted by the Lithuanian media and is being hastily discussed by the society. The majority express their Negative Reaction to the initiators of the case, comparing the present situation with the middle ages. On the contrary, a part defends the Dean and the religious community, stating that the festival and its content are harmful for peoples’ moral.
The organiser, ALT events, justifies the band, the festival, and its nature, as it does not carry any idea to provoke disunity among religious, national, racial, ethnic or any other groups of people: “In general, the festival itself is useful for such a small town, making it more famous, bringing people who spend their money there and so on. On the other hand, we could never be absolutely sure, what the band really wanted to expose by its show. But what we are firmly sure of is that there have not been any clear blasphemies against church, no burning of a bible or anything similar. There were no incidents, no acts of Satanism. We stand for the viewpoint that even the most Extreme and radical shows on stage should be considered as art of performance; the Freedom of artistic expression should not be restrained, does not matter, if it is Black Metal music or a piece of contemporary art. In The End, we do not believe any of those insulted people have been present in the festival at all. Thus we can only interpret the actions of the local church authorities as a purposeful aim to destroy the festival by any Means for the reason they only know themselves. But we are absolutely not going to stop doing what we started”, comments one of the festival organisers.
It is expected that such unwanted confrontation between the festival and religious institution would not determine The End of festival’s existence. The relation with local authorities of the church has been complicated since the debut of the festival in 2009, when the Dean aimed to ban the festival for its title “Devilstone” and for its last year’s headliner Sepultura, which, according to the Dean, was a Satanic band.
Devilstone Open Air occurred for the second time this year in Anyksciai, was headlined by Mayhem, Grave and Tankard, featured 15 more bands from all over Europe, and held an audience of about 1500 people.
The festival was a hit with Lithuania's metal community and the locals, except, it seems, the religious community of the town. A group of local Catholics and the Dean of the local church publicly expressed their opponent attitude towards the festival. They initiated a pre-trial investigation accusing the festival and/or the festival’s Headline ACT Mayhem of provoking religious disunion.
Local Catholics and the Dean declared their religious feelings had been insulted as they witnessed the photos of the band’s performance where the sartorial GOD that is Atilla Csihar wore a cassock, had an Inverted Cross, a bloody Mask and a Gallows loop as part of his onstage costume.
The Dean applied to the Ministry of Justice, which in turn forwarded the case back to the local Prosecution Service in Anyksciai. The pre-trial investigation is in the process and the organisers of the festival are scheduled to express their statement next week.
Meanwhile such an unprecedented case has been highlighted by the Lithuanian media and is being hastily discussed by the society. The majority express their Negative Reaction to the initiators of the case, comparing the present situation with the middle ages. On the contrary, a part defends the Dean and the religious community, stating that the festival and its content are harmful for peoples’ moral.
The organiser, ALT events, justifies the band, the festival, and its nature, as it does not carry any idea to provoke disunity among religious, national, racial, ethnic or any other groups of people: “In general, the festival itself is useful for such a small town, making it more famous, bringing people who spend their money there and so on. On the other hand, we could never be absolutely sure, what the band really wanted to expose by its show. But what we are firmly sure of is that there have not been any clear blasphemies against church, no burning of a bible or anything similar. There were no incidents, no acts of Satanism. We stand for the viewpoint that even the most Extreme and radical shows on stage should be considered as art of performance; the Freedom of artistic expression should not be restrained, does not matter, if it is Black Metal music or a piece of contemporary art. In The End, we do not believe any of those insulted people have been present in the festival at all. Thus we can only interpret the actions of the local church authorities as a purposeful aim to destroy the festival by any Means for the reason they only know themselves. But we are absolutely not going to stop doing what we started”, comments one of the festival organisers.
It is expected that such unwanted confrontation between the festival and religious institution would not determine The End of festival’s existence. The relation with local authorities of the church has been complicated since the debut of the festival in 2009, when the Dean aimed to ban the festival for its title “Devilstone” and for its last year’s headliner Sepultura, which, according to the Dean, was a Satanic band.
Devilstone Open Air occurred for the second time this year in Anyksciai, was headlined by Mayhem, Grave and Tankard, featured 15 more bands from all over Europe, and held an audience of about 1500 people.
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