If Rammstein plans to return to play a concert in Quebec, despite allegations of serious sexual misconduct against his singer Till Lindemann, that will not be the case at the summer festival.
• Also read: Sexual allegations: Rammstein wanted to get young girls to party in Quebec in 2010
• Also read: The young girls were invited to celebrate with Rammstein at the FEQ: “It gave me the feeling that we had prepared a buffet,” says a former employee
The FEQ programmer Louis Bellavance has closed the door to a return of the German group “as things stand,” he said in an interview with Le Journal.
“It would be very distasteful to have conversations with them,” adds Mr. Bellavance.
Rammstein has been in an uproar since several young women denounced a predatory system put in place during the group’s concerts to allow Lindemann to gratify his sexual desires. Viewers even said they were drugged without their knowledge.
Despite everything, the heavy metal band continues their stadium tour through Europe this summer.
Following this widely publicized affair, Le Journal had revealed that Rammstein’s entourage had asked the Festival d’été organizers to find pretty young girls for him to party after their 2010 concert on the Plains of Abraham.
Despite everything, the group performed again in 2016 on the Plains.
“It was not widely known within the organization that employees were unwell. I don’t tour with artists before I’ve made an appointment with an artist. For an artist to stand on the sidings, it is necessary [ses comportements] are in the public domain. “That wasn’t the case in 2016,” explains Louis Bellavance.
Listen to the column by Florence Lamoureux, research journalist QUB radio :
Party interrupted
Although no inappropriate gestures of a sexual nature were reported in 2016, FEQ management had to intervene to put an end to the party that was taking place in the backstage dressing rooms after the concert.
“We weren’t sure about the mood of this party,” says Mr. Bellevance, recalling an evening that was dragged out too much, music too loud and consumer issues.
After this incident – not a one-off, but not frequent, it is said – personnel were hired behind the scenes to improve security.
Difficult to control hip hop artists
Without naming anyone, Louis Bellavance points out that Rammstein is not the only artist who left bad memories of his time in Quebec.
“There are groups that have bad habits,” he says, targeting the hip-hop scene in particular.
“It’s a shame to generalize and Logic was the nicest guy we’ve had in the history of the FEQ and there’s no such thing as a blip with the Quebecers, but there are a lot of concerts with hip-hop artists that go hard .” to manage behind the scenes.”
The bad reputation of rappers even influences the programmer’s decisions. “The smart amateur will understand that I don’t abuse hip-hop. It’s an evening on the plain, one in the Parc de la Francophonie. It’s not because it’s not popular.