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Hellfest has public grant pulled after refusal to drop Phil Anselmo

By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 9 February 2016

French festival Hellfest in the town of Clisson has seemingly lost a €20,000 grant from the local government after refusing to remove Phil Anselmo’s Down from its line-up.

President of the Pays De La Loire region Bruno Retailleau issued a statement last week saying that these steps had been taken in the wake of the recent racism scandal surrounding Anselmo, in which he was filmed giving a Nazi salute and shouting “white power” at a show in the US. However, organisers have accused Retailleau of using this is an excuse to remove funding from an event he simply does not like.

As previously reported, Anselmo initially said that his actions were part of an in-joke about bands being served white wine backstage at a tribute show for late Pantera guitarist ‘Dimebag’ Darrell Abbott, where the “white power” incident occurred. He subsequently apologised and later offered to quit Down to avoid damaging his bandmates’ careers. This followed the band being pulled from Dutch festival FortaRock.

In his statement, Retailleau said that video footage of the original incident “leaves no doubt as to [Anselmo’s] intentions” and that he would ensure that there was no room for “hate speech, whether racial or religious” at publicly supported events and that “those who preach racial or religious hatred cannot receive public money”.

Down are listed as the headliners of one of Hellfest’s smaller stages. In an interview with Ouest France, festival director Ben Barbaud accused Retailleau of attempting to score political points. He noted that the first the festival knew of the threat to withdraw funding was when the politician’s statement was issued, questioning why he did not come and speak to organisers directly first, or bring up his concerns at a meeting late last month.

“They found a perfect excuse to pull the grant”, said Barbaud. “They can keep their €20,000”. Ouest France notes that the total budget for Hellfest is €16 million.

Defending Anselmo and the decision not to cancel Down’s performance, Barbaud said: “[He] apologised repeatedly. He even offered to leave the band, who must also be disgusted with what happened. Everyone agrees that [his actions were] unacceptable and that the metal scene is neither racist nor anti-Semitic. I know Phil Anselmo very well, and he has been to Clisson many times. I am convinced that his apologies are sincere”.

“We have never seen this kind of behaviour at Hellfest”, he continued. “No one has been seen making [racist] gestures or speech, either on stage or behind the scenes. I deeply believe that [Anselmo] is a good person. [But] he is a provocateur who plays the big man and loses control when he’s drunk. He made a huge mistake. But you can find many examples of people who have said terrible things after a small amount of alcohol, including [in our local government]”.

However, Barbaud did add that the band had already been downgraded to a stage smaller than he thought suitable for them, at the request of their agent. He also said that he expected Down’s upcoming European live dates to be cancelled anyway.