Marco V cancels Syria gig after death threats

Marco V cancels Syria gig after death threats

28 February, 2008 | 3.07PM

• Section: Music News Topics: Beatport Blog
• Written by: Terry Church

Beatportal has received some very worrying news: Dutch techno and trance DJ Marco V has canceled an upcoming gig planned for Damascus in Syria after he and his management received death threats.

“Obviously we get all kinds of comments on the boards, mostly positive, some not so good, but never anything like the death threats we received this week,” Marco V said, in a statement from his management.

“I am very upset that I won’t be able to make it; it would have been a first for me, and a first for Syria.

“At the end of the day we had to consider what’s happened and take what is sensible advice.

“Hopefully one day the situation in Syria will allow international DJs such as myself to come and play as we do in every other part of the world”. 

No details have been released about the actual death threats received but clearly the intent of the threats was to dissuade Marco V from going ahead with his show.

He would have been the first ever international DJ to play in Syria, which begs the question, why would anyone not want Marco V to play in Syria?

Quite possibly, it could have come from a rival local promoter, who was jealous of the fact that a promoter in Damascus had managed to secure a famous international DJ for the first time.

But death threats are a bit extreme, either for a disgruntled promoter.

There is another slim possibility - a political faction or religious group could be behind the death threats.

Syria shares borders with Iraq, Turkey and Jordan and religious extremists in Syria might have been outraged by the possibility of a Western DJ coming to spread a message of electronic music, club culture and dancing for the first time.

Certainly the event would have been high profile enough to attract the attention of those outside of the Damascus club community.

Whoever made the threats, clearly they were believable enough to persuade Marco V to cancel his show.

“Threats of any kind need to be considered carefully, and taking that into account canceling was the only option we could take,” said Marco’s manager Anna Knaup.

“As Marco said - it was going to be a historic gig for him as well as for Syria, to our knowledge no international DJ has ever played there before”.

Whether we like it or not, there is a political message behind dance music and club culture and it is a message that all groups might not agree with.

• (5) Comments
• (1638) Views
• Check out Marco V on Beatport