Attendees of Austrian music festival Snowbombing will be entertained with the likes of Fatboy Slim and See during the program's 20th-anniversary celebrations this week. However, one popular headliner will be noticeably absent and is looking to send a message in the process.
Grime artist Stormzy posted a series of messages to his Instagram Stories indicating his reasons for pulling out of the festival last minute, and it has much to do with the organizers racial profiling his team when they arrived at the venue Wednesday evening.
Stormzy boycotting a festival because they racially abused his friends is one of the reasons why I love him (more info on his IG story) pic.twitter.com/wdLxGeomIE
— HabKat (@Habibakatsha) April 11, 2019
"My manager and all my friends who were at the festival were racially profiled, targeted and aggressively handled because they had reason to believe someone was carrying a weapon," a portion of his comments read.
"The security targeted them (despite no one fitting the description), were physically aggressive when handling them and there's been no effort from the festival to actually deal and address the problem," he continued.
Stormzy apologized to disappointed fans but defended his decision wholeheartedly.
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"The last ever thing I wanna do is let down anyone who’s taken time out to support me," she said. "So please hear me out, I too would be fuming if I travelled and spent money to go and watch an artist and they pull out last minute. However, if these are the drastic steps that I need to take to make a point against racism and racial profiling, then trust me I'm taking it."
Snowbombing organizers released a statement following the incident and confirmed they were made aware of someone potentially carrying a weapon on the premises. From there, they followed the protocol to determine if those allegations were valid.
"In accordance with protocol, a small number of attendees, including Stormzy’s manager were escorted to the nearest exit, searched and no weapon was found. Stormzy's management were unhappy with the manner by which this took place and as a result Stormzy will no longer be performing tonight."
Coordinators sent apologies to Stormzy and his associates and added: "We are doing everything we can to understand the full situation and are treating this with the utmost seriousness to ensure this does not happen again."
Over on Twitter, users lauded Stormzy for his decision, praising the 25-year-old for putting his beliefs ahead of fame or money.
I’m GLAD Stormzy decided not to perform. How you can be angry at someone making a difference and standing up for his whole race? Money & time are important yes, but respect, dignity & equality will always top that. Thank you, Stormzy.
— ÃJ (@amskyky) April 11, 2019
Spoilt rich white kids reaction to Stormzy cancelling just goes to show they love to consume black culture/music but don't wanna hear anything about the struggle that came with it.
— – (@BinSH0) April 11, 2019
Stormzy’s public vested interest in race is one of my favourite things. He’s super unapologetic about it too. I wanna be like that.
— Henrie (@HenrieVIII) April 11, 2019
Absolute mad respect to @stormzy regarding snowbombing. Yes it sucks for fans who paid hard earned cash to see him but you know what sucks way fucking more….the systematic and often 'invisible to others' racism that still occurs on a daily fucking basis…
— Laliesha Ali (@LalieshaMich) April 11, 2019
This instance is not the first time the London-born rapper has spoken out about racial profiling. The Guardian writes Stormzy chastised police officers in January 2017 after they broke into his apartment in the Chelsea neighborhood after receiving calls about a potential burglar. Instead, they found the award-winning artist sleeping.
The published author will also headline the Glastonbury festival in June, marking it his most famous live set to date.
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