Roger Waters Concert Canceled Over Alleged Antisemitism

Pink Floyds Roger Waters is back in the news after the City of Frankfurt, Germany announced that a scheduled Roger Waters concert would be canceled. When asked about the decision to cancel, the city council referred to the Pink Floyd Cofounder  as “one of the world’s most well-known antisemites.”

On May 28, 2023, Waters was supposed to perform at the Festhalle concert hall in Frankfurt. But the city of Frankfurt has 60% ownership of the venue,  therefore Festhalle is not a privately held entity. Because of that, the city council had the power to cancel Waters’s gig.

The cancellation announcement cited Waters’ boycott of Israel, his comparisons of Israel to segregation in South Africa, his declaration of his ties with the Islamist militant group Hamas and his use of a pig-shaped balloon with a Star of David on previous tours.  The council also noted that the historical significance of Festhalle played a big part in their decision. The venue was used for the detention of 3,000 Jewish men who were arrested in 1938 when Nazis destroyed Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues.

The Frankfurt stop was part of Waters’ European leg of th

e This Is Not a Drill Tour. He is still scheduled to play an additional five German shows this May, in Hamburg, Cologne, and Munich, and two nights in Berlin.

The Frankfurt cancellation comes less than a month after Polly Samson, wife of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, posted a tweet in which she called Waters “antisemitic” and a “Putin apologist.” Gilmour retweeted the post and declared support for his wife’s claims. “Every word demonstrably true,” he wrote.