Religious Group Protest Leads To Cancelation Of Australian Black Metal Festival

November 17, 2010

According to Metal Obsession, a Sydney, Australia-based religious group on Facebook has seemingly successfully protested against the running of a black metal mini-festival, dubbed "Black Mass", at Sydney venue Newtown RSL. The venue has reportedly already pulled out from the event, and the festival promoter, Séance Records, has postponed the event until another date/venue can be found.

The protesting Facebook group described the festival as a "satanic 'Black Mass' celebration [which] is simply disgraceful. The advertising which features the insignia of the Church of Satan and an inverted crucifix is encouraging people to come and partake in an 'unholy spell to be cast upon the city of Sydney' featuring the 'ultimate of soul-possessing occult revelations…unbridled blasphemy… [and] a union of all things unholy.'"

Séance Records commented on the cancelation in a press release posted on Brisbane-based metal forum Brismetal, stating, "Less than two weeks out from the show The RSL board has pulled the plug on Black Mass festival. They have blatantly cancelled with no prior notice and with no option of negotiation or compromise. They have sadly bowed under pressure from Christians who have lobbied them to cancel the show.

"The Christians have launched the full scale of their campaign at the last minute, I believe in a calculated manner to sabotage us to the fullest extent possible. They have done so via a series of Facebook pages organized to have the event cancelled. From their website we can tell that these are the same people who lobby against gay and lesbian rights, womens reproductive rights and contraception. Their actions will cause large scale hurt not to a secret den of Satanists as they may imagine but to normal hard-working, tax-paying, law-abiding Australians. Young people who have taken time off work, rearranged their schedules and family life, then spent money that they probably can't afford on flights and tickets to the event in the pursuit of a shared love for heavy metal and live independent Australian music."

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