It’s a poster in gothic characters that set fire to the powder. Posted online, it announces that four neo-Nazi-inspired black metal bands are set to perform “in the east of France”, in a secret place. According to Médiapart – who spotted the poster – the exact location is not specified: a strategy put in place to avoid any prior ban. Reservations are therefore made by sending an e-mail to the organizers who, by return e-mail, send a message explaining that the exact location of the evening will be announced only a few hours in advance. And the message also specifies that the payment (20 euros) is made online.
Still according to Mediapart, the festival, baptized in English «Night for the blood» (“Night for blood”) would take place within a radius of 20 km around Epinal, prefecture of the Vosges department. Other sources have reported a radius of 50 km around Saint-Dié, another commune in the Vosges. Also, according to information from France Bleu, Gérald Darmanin asked the six prefects potentially concerned (Vosges, Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin, Haute-Saône, Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle) “to ban this concert”and the Home Office claims to have made available “the necessary means” to enforce the ban.
The “Night for the Blood”, a national socialist black metal fest (NSBM), should be held on Saturday February 25 in the vicinity of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges. On the bill, four Nazi groups: Stahlfront (Germany), Eidkameraden (Switzerland), Leibstandarte and Todesschwadron (France). pic.twitter.com/bML3PFbQRX
— Donatien Huet (@dodonatien) February 18, 2023
“It revolts us”
However, faced with the restrictions in force in Germany against the neo-Nazi movement, it is not uncommon for people nostalgic for the Third Reich in this country to choose the east of France for gatherings, organized on private land or in halls communal, under false pretenses.
Asked, the mayor of Epinal, Patrick Nardin claims to be “checking all room rentals”. “We briefed the municipal police. We are on our guard.” adds the aedile. “How can we still have such gatherings today?”he protests elsewhere. “It revolts us, especially in sectors like ours where the Second World War left its mark. Here, there were many shot, Spinaliens who resisted”, he concludes. Contacted by email by AFP, the organizers of the festival have not yet given an answer.