(ZRUŠENO) Paranoya fest 2025 (vol.21)

Vyjádření ke zrušení (v angličtině) níže.
"

Here we are now…. Most of the bands have canceled and so we are unfortunately forced to cancel the Paranoya Festival 2025. As we explained in our last post, we did NOT want to deny ANYONE the right to take the stage and show solidarity with the people suffering from war in Palestine.
We have met personally with a few bands in the past weeks to talk about the accusations made against Paranoya. It turned out that bands, as well as individuals (regardless of their own opinion), were written to and pressured or blackmailed by people on Instagram or via Email. Bands were told that they would no longer be given the opportunity to play in other parts of Europe if they played at our festival. Individuals were told that it would be better to distance themselves from the festival…
This corresponds to our perception that a shitstorm was started on social media against the Paranoya Festival without actually dealing with our position/argumentation.
We have largely stayed out of this “debate” as we have never used social media as a means of communication, especially in relation to the companies behind it, and it is also not the right place for us to discuss such sensitive issues.
However, we understand that bands and people are afraid of becoming victims of such a campaign and have to stop doing what they love doing most, namely playing music at self-organized festivals or organizing them.
But we can’t hide the fact that we are very disappointed about how all this has gone. We would like to apologize to all the bands and people who have been victims of this shitstorm. Nevertheless, we would like to make it clear that several boundaries have been crossed and that this type of “exchange” is in no way about discourse.
We have invested a lot of time, money, passion and work in recent years because we love organizing the Paranoya Festival and D.I.Y. concerts and interacting with bands and visitors from different countries. We have hosted hundreds of bands over the last 15 years, which has led to many personal relationships and friendships. That’s why it’s all the more difficult for us to realize that we’ve hardly received any queries or even support. It has shaken and destroyed our trust in the D.I.Y. punk scene to a large extent when a single internet post taken out of context cuts friendships and relationships that
have developed over almost two decades and all the work of the last few years is called into question.
We would like to emphasize once again that we never wanted to forbid anyone from showing solidarity with the Palestinian people, who are suffering from this senseless war that is getting worse and worse by the day. Nor did we want to forbid any band from expressing their opinion on this subject at any time.
Unfortunately, canceling or boycotting the Paranoya Festival will not help a single person in Palestine.
However, the cancellation of Paranoya will not help the D.I.Y. punk scene and the subcultural activities in our region, where an extreme right-wing party is becoming stronger and stronger, and more and more young people are beginning to radicalize themselves in a racist, neo-nationalist, homophobic, trans- and queer-hostile way, and physical and verbal violence against people who do not correspond to their world view is unfortunately still part of everyday life and is increasing.

In addition to all this, we try as best we can to create a counterpoint and alternative places, especially in the east part of Germany, to play them and keep them alive. We try to offer a safe space to all those who need it in these increasingly harsh times, even if it’s only for an evening or a weekend.
Due to the cancellation of the festival, the support of other local, left-wing, anti-fascist projects through our donations, which we have generated and donated in recent years with the PARANOYA via the entrance and the cocktail bar (e.g. to support victims of fascist violence, ABC, Rosa e.V., Polylux e.V., etc.)
The last few weeks have been very exhausting and emotionally exhausting for us. We don’t know if and how things can possibly continue in the future, but we would like to thank all those who have stood by us and promised us their continued support.
Your Paranoya-Crew

"