Are neo-Nazi sympathizers increasingly present at metal festivals? The debate has agitated part of the metal community in recent months, in particular during Hellfest 2023 where photos were shot on social networks. We see festival-goers sporting tattoos representing valknuts, runes, black sun, fleur-de-lys or Celtic crosses. Symbols of diverse origins, often from Scandinavian mythology, used as rallying signs by the far right and neo-Nazi movements. Some festival-goers saw an “uninhibited presence of Nazis” and were outraged, in a context made sensitive by the criticized programming of certain artists accused of racism, like the Polish group Mgla present at Motocultor 2019 and Hellfest 2022 or Phil Anselmo, regular at French festivals. While the great exhibition Metalpresented since April 5 at the Philarmonie de Paris, also addresses the subject, 20 minutes interviewed two researchers specializing in musical culture, metal in particular.
“When we work as a sociologist, we ask ourselves these questions,” explains Gérôme Guibert, sociologist in popular cultures and university professor at the Sorbonne Nouvelle. Since the beginning of metal culture, this debate has existed among observers. Metal culture has always flirted with things that were controversial, ambiguity is part of it. In the 1970s, punks wore swastikas to piss off the system, like the Sex Pistols and Siouxie and the Banshees. Lemmy [Kilmister] by Motörhead, who is still one of the icons of metal today, displayed totenkopf, war crosses, eagles of the German army on his jackets. Marylin Manson had red sheets on stage with elements evoking Germany in the 1940s. They were all shocking but they were certainly not Nazis, quite the contrary. »
“They will see these symbols and will misinterpret their meaning”
For the sociologist, the analysis of the symbols displayed by artists or fans of the metal scene does not allow the first degree. “A symbol almost never has an absolute meaning. Its relativity must be taken into account depending on the context. At the foundation of metal there is an interest inheroic fantasy and its ancient, medieval symbols. The Northern European metal wave in the 1990s brought its Viking aesthetic with its Nordic symbols. And then, of course, there is the totalitarian and warlike aesthetic. It is an integral part of metal culture, in the same way as the anti-Christian aesthetic. It is a violent imagination claimed to support the harshness of daily life. »
Corentin Charbonnier, doctor in anthropology and metal enthusiast and co-curator of the exhibition Metal, abounds. “We have plenty of metal bands that display symbols from Nordic cultures. And some of these symbols were, in fact, appropriated by Nazi Germany and then by fascist movements. Wearing a symbol of Thor or Odin does not necessarily make the person wearing it a neo-Nazi. I can’t say it doesn’t exist, but it’s very complicated to analyze looks. »
According to Gérôme Guibert, what has changed in recent years is the “media visibility” of metal and some of its festivals. “Hellfest has become huge. And it welcomes lots of new spectators, people who want to see what it’s like but who don’t really know the codes. They will see these symbols, will misinterpret their meaning and will find it serious, which is quite normal in some ways. Ten years ago it was criticism from conservatives, now it is more criticism from ultra-progressives who are looking for injustices. » “It’s music that has always wanted to shock, that has always been marginalized. This is changing with the success of Hellfest, which creates misunderstandings,” believes Corentin Charbonnier.
“There are fewer metalheads who declare themselves from the RN than in the rest of society”
The latter has attended all editions of Hellfest since its creation. He has been carrying out statistical work on the profile of the public for several years and, at the same time, is preparing the Parisian exhibition for which he is curator. “Whether among artists or festival-goers, there is no culture of apologizing for the Third Reich. We are not immune to having a few people from that background who try to take on something, but that would be an ultra-minority. What our surveys say is that the left-wing public is in the majority. Less than 3% of the public described themselves as far-right in 2019, a third with no political opinion, 10% on the right. I did interviews on other festivals, notably Motocultor, and the same trend emerges. It remains music that is very committed to the left, even if it is undoubtedly less true than around thirty years ago. »
“Statistically, you can find everything at a gathering as big as Hellfest,” adds Gérôme Guibert. And just because there are one or two guys doing something doesn’t mean that all festival-goers do the same. What we know is that there are fewer metalheads who identify as RN than in the rest of society. And what brings metalheads together at a festival is above all the love of metal music and its transgressive environment. Political and religious questions are not their subject. If people start to proselytize, we will quickly tell them that they are not welcome. You can’t say the same thing everywhere, in punk or in reggae, for example. »
+ information on Hellfest 2024
“I find it hard to believe that we are being invaded overnight by small far-right groups, in any case that is not what we are seeing,” insists Corentin Charbonnier. If we talk about it a lot it is also because we have a crystallization of society with a phenomenon of denunciation via social networks. Metalheads are very connected. Whatever the problem, it raises the question of the social court. »