Jeff Rosenstock has dropped off the Booze Cruise festival, an event that is scheduled to take place in Hamburg, Germany later this spring. Rosenstock was announced as the top-billed headliner for the fest back in March. “After a lot of thought and offline conversations, we will not be playing this years Booze Cruise,” Rosenstock wrote in a statement. “I’m deeply sorry to anyone who was looking forward to seeing us. Free Palestine and stop using our tax dollars to fund fascism and genocide instead of health care.”
The organizer behind the Booze Cruise festival has been accused of being a Zionist in a number of social media posts earlier this month. In a statement put out last week, the organizer defended himself against the accusations. “Like many Jews and citizens of Israel, I do not support the current Israeli government, nor do I have any knowledge about Israel’s settlement plans,” he wrote. “The pacifist optimist in me would love to see two peaceful states, Hamas incarcerated, Netanjahu out of office, and Palestinians free to travel, work, and love whomever they choose.”
“So, if you hold a different viewpoint on the existence of Israel, Booze Cruise might not be the festival you want to attend this summer,” the statement from the festival continued. “If you believe that shouting ‘from the river…’ is an acceptable statement, it’s not, in fact it is a crime according to German law. If you post terms like ‘i$rael’, ‘z!onist’, ‘gen0cide’, then fuck all the way off already.”
Other artists have also dropped off the Booze Cruise festival. Teenage Halloween, Toodles & The Hectic Pity, and more posted on social media that they were no longer performing at the event, and a number of other bands have been removed from the fest’s official lineup page in the days since the organizer’s statement was released.
Teenage Halloween has decided to drop off of Booze Cruise.
We’ll also be unable to fulfil any other planned EU dates. We hope to be back to the EU as soon as we can. Thank you for understanding.
— Teenage Halloween 🎃 (@tnghllwnband) April 16, 2024
We’re no longer playing Booze Cruise or coming to Germany next month
Some info below about why 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/XK0Wrphe1k
— Toodles & the Hectic Pity 🔮🕯️🤝 (@ToodlesBand) April 15, 2024
