Russian deathcore band Slaughter to Prevail’s appearance at the Tuska Festival in Helsinki on Saturday sparked both an official protest and informal demonstrations during their performance.
Opposite the festival’s main entrance, demonstrators held signs questioning whether Tuska was the right platform for “Russian propaganda” and asking why the festival was giving space to “Russian patriots.”
According to the organisers of the protest, Slaughter to Prevail supports the Russian state in multiple ways.
The band previously performed in Washington DC under the Russian flag.
Anastasiia Diudina, one of the protest organisers, said it was “absurd” that while Russia builds military bases on Finland’s borders, a band led by Alex Terrible 鈥 real name Aleksandr Shikolai 鈥 who “supports Russian aggression against other countries,” is allowed to perform in the Finnish capital.
“People often say that Aleksandr Shikolai is against the war. This is based on interviews he has given to English-language media and on social media posts, some of which he has already deleted,” said Diudina.
“But on his own Telegram channel and in Russian-language interviews, he flirts with patriotism.”
Shikolai has collaborated with the brand 小胁芯褟 袣褍谢褜褌褍褉邪 (Svoja Kultura), which Diudina described as “very patriotic.”
Police intervened to remove individuals who were behaving disruptively towards the demonstrators.
Festival allows peaceful protest
Inside the festival grounds, there were also signs of protest. A group of attendees gave the middle finger throughout Slaughter to Prevail’s set. Ukrainian flags were prominently displayed, and several people wore clothing in Ukrainian colours. One banner criticised both Russia and its President Vladimir Putin.
Tuska Festival promoter Jouni Markkanen said such demonstrations are allowed at the event.
“Waving different flags and banners is part of festival culture鈥攖hough sometimes they can obstruct the audience’s view,” he said. “This isn’t the first time someone’s shown a band the middle finger at Tuska.”
Markkanen emphasised that there is one basic rule for demonstrations at the festival: they must not disrupt the performance itself.
He drew a comparison with the so-called “Jesus Bus,” which for several years stationed itself outside the festival offering salvation to heavy metal fans.
“In the end, the Jesus Bus turned against itself. It became a carnivalesque phenomenon, and Tuska’s audience no longer took it seriously,” Markkanen recalled.
This year, Russian flags were explicitly banned from the festival. No Russian flags or pro-Russian propaganda appeared during Slaughter to Prevail’s performance.
“Based on our prior discussions, the artist had no intention whatsoever to wave a flag or stage any kind of provocation,” Markkanen said.