Organizers felt “uncomfortable”: White musicians with dreadlocks are not allowed to play in Zurich bars

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Musician Mario Parizek in a Viennese subway station

Photo: Stefan Fürtbauer / picture alliance

In Switzerland, another concert has been canceled in the course of the debate on cultural appropriation.

The Zurich bar "Gleis" canceled the performance announced for August 16 by the Austrian guitarist Mario Parizek, who wears dreadlocks, as reported by the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung", among others.

People from their own team also addressed the topic of cultural appropriation and said that they "didn't feel comfortable with this performance," according to a statement from the restaurant on Facebook.

The reason for the rejection was not the hairstyle itself, but the "discomfort" expressed.

That was a "more or less fascist attitude," countered the white musician on Instagram.

He has worn the hairstyle since the age of 13 as a political statement against the right.

"Today I'm being discriminated against by the left corner."

Cultural appropriation means that people use a culture that is not their own, for example through music or clothing.

Blacks in particular identify with dreadlocks hairstyles.

In July, a concert by the Swiss band Lauwarm in the "Lorraine" brasserie in Bern was canceled because some in the audience were annoyed that the musicians were playing Jamaican music and some were wearing African clothes and dreadlocks.

In March, the Fridays for Future movement in Germany disinvited the white musician Ronja Maltzahn, who was supposed to perform at a demonstration in Hanover, because of her dreadlocks.