We as venue have a „no national flag" policy since many years. That means that we do not tolerate any kind of national flags in our venue. This is also written down in our venue specs so that also artists get to know about that. During the sound check this late afternoon it turned out that the band had a Palestinian flag on stage. We asked them to take the flag away, but they decided that for them and their show this flag is too important to be able to do the show without.

We try to be a safe place for many different communities and really believe that music is able to build bridges - beyond borders and nationalities. Therefore we deeple believe that national flags are not helpful all at.

We feel deeply honoured that we can work together with so many different communites and artists from all over the world. We did so in the past, do so now and will do so in the future.

Regarding the middle east, we try to support the palestinian community as well as jewish and/ or israeli people. We also present artists from all over this region.

We never cancel speeches as long as they are not hatespeeches against other groups of human beings. We try to encounter everybody with empathy and consider it important to follow our heart.

We feel very sorry that all the fans weren't able to experience the concert they were coming for, but there is no compromise possible between „a national flag" and „no national flag". And there is probably no right or wrong.

We like to say thank you to all those who understand our policy. We know that there are people who doesn't. Fair enough.

And of course we know that there will be a huge shitstorm under this post.

But for doing a club like we do, we need to remain true to ourselves and our beliefs.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

clubgretchen 1d. Author

We have just seen now, that the band said several things which are unfortunately not true. We like to add on to precise:

The bandmembers themselves didn't talk to us for hours. The show has been organized by an external promoter. They only talked to him. He told us that they knew about our no national flag policy but they don't care. We asked to talk to the band by ouselves to explain and to find a solution but they refused.

They didn't want to speek with us. The band just started talking to us around 7pm (when the doors should open for the show) to let us know that they will not play without the flag on stage.

We tried to explain our policy to them by ourselves and assured them several times, that they are free to speek on stage as long as it it not inhumane. We didn't censore the band neither their political message. We also told them that we support the Palestinian community (and others) since years, therefore we regularely offer our space and pesent artists from various regions, so that the band can get an impression about us, our space and our aims. Also therefore we talked about our past and upcoming events, who played at Gretchen and which crews did or do their events here. And that lots of them support Palestinians or express solidarity for them on stage. They insisted on the flag. They didn't ask us for a banner.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

So the venue says they have a consistent no-flag policy that all performers are made aware of in advance (via their management). They venue also says clearly that they were never asked by the band if an alternative banner could be flown.

The band makes a statement on TikTok, which to me sounded a little performative, that contradicts the venues statement. They begin with the unusual disclaimer that they don't speak on behalf of their management. Also, the flag which they say is so important to them, they are holding upside down. Their support of Palestine began around December 2024.

Something is really off here.

[–] freeman -3 points 1 week ago

but there is no compromise possible between „a national flag" and „no national flag". And there is probably no right or wrong.

Yes there is. Allow flags of persecuted nationalities, ban flags of nations commiting genocide, do whatever you want with the rest.

Of course since their nationality is not threatened it us easy for them to take this "nationality bad" enlightened position.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They asked if they could show the words “Free Palestine” as a compromise and were denied. Shameful.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

According to the club, that's a lie. I don't know what to believe

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The band themselves said this on their official social media account (TikTok video). I haven't seen a statement from the venue yet.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I posted the venue's statements from Instagram in this thread

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I’ve just read it. Here’s a link to the bands statement: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdMQxgH4/

It’s a little odd that the flag that is so important to them is upside down. It’s also interesting that they start by saying that they are not speaking for their management or crew.