Dutch Festival FortaRock Cancels DOWN’s Appearance In Wake Of PHIL ANSELMO’s “White Power” Scandal
February 3, 2016, 8 years ago
“After the recent outbursts by singer Phil Anselmo during the Dimebash event in the US, his band Down is no longer welcome at FortaRock”, say organizers of the festival, which takes place June 4th - 5th in Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Organizers continue: “Anselmo ended the show in the US with a Nazi salute and shouted “white power". There has been close consultation between all parties recent days, since we wanted to make a well informed decision. On that basis, the decision is made to cancel the act. We want to make clear that there is no room for racism or fascism on FortaRock.”
On January 22nd at Dimebash 2016, which took place at Lucky Strike Live in Hollywood, former Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo took the stage at one point during the show. At the end of the performance of “Walk”, Anselmo ended the night with a Nazi salute, then screamed “white power” to the crowd.
Anselmo has released a video apology saying he is a “thousand percent apologetic to anyone that took offence to what I said”, and asks for people to just, “give him another chance.”
Anselmo initially stated about the video: "Ok folks, I'll own this one, but dammit, I was joking, and the 'inside joke of the night' was because we were drinking fucking white wine, hahaha... Of all fucking things. Some of y'all need to thicken up your skin. There's plenty of fuckers to pick on with a more realistic agenda. I fucking love everyone, I fucking loathe everyone, and that's that. No apologies from me.”
