"We are art, not commerce": Punk band gets another subsidy

Created: 05/13/2022, 06:00

By: Stefanie Zipfer

The musicians of "Sabot Noir" have now received a travel allowance of 300 euros for their journey to their concert in Groningen in the Netherlands © Nikolas Kokovlis / IMAGO

The cultural committee of the Dachau city council has granted the punk band "Sabot Noir" a travel allowance for a concert tour.

But before that, the young musicians had to make a statement.

Dachau

– Almost two years ago, there was a heated discussion in the city council’s culture committee: Can a punk band whose songs contain lyrics like “Fuck Cops” or “I hate bulls” benefit from municipal funding?

In the end, the answer, against the resistance of the Dachau CSU in particular, was yes.

However, the city council then subsequently specified its cultural funding guidelines, which now explicitly state that money from the city coffers will only be given to those who, in their "substantive work on the principles of the large district town of Dachau, for example on inclusion, intercultural orientation, (.. .), anti-discrimination, sustainable development and procurement, anti-Semitism or group-related enmity” (we reported).

On Wednesday, the band's application for a subsidy for their travel expenses to a concert in Holland was on the agenda of the culture committee.

The members of "Sabot Noir" now live in Munich, but due to their origin they are considered a band from Dachau.

Application for a travel allowance, otherwise the band would have suffered a loss

This is another condition of the city's cultural funding guidelines: Only Dachau cultural associations or "self-creating bands" can claim a travel allowance of 30 cents per kilometer for concerts outside of Bavaria.

In the case of the most recent application, "Sabot Noir" therefore asked for 300 euros.

Without a subsidy, according to band spokesman Matthias Wuschek, the performance in Groningen would be "a loss on our part".

In addition, he also made it "expressly clear that our songs are not about commercial art, but about art in which social grievances (...) are addressed and criticized".

Her type of art, Wuschek continues, is of course "rabid and provocative", but falls under the concept of artistic freedom.

City councils also support crèche friends and TSV Dachau

The committee members took a similar view and granted the young people their 300 euros.

There were also grants for the artist Claudia Flach, the Ampertaler Krippenfreunde, the Ensemble Cantinori and the Evangelical Church of Reconciliation.

TSV Dachau 1865 can also look forward to a travel allowance for the "skate session" in Klagenfurt, as well as Christian Salvermoser and Johannes Karl to money for their Maypole celebration 2022.

You can find more current news from the district of Dachau at Merkur.de/Dachau.