Yasin was booked for festivals – criticism of indented support

Rapper Yasin is one of Sweden’s most streamed artists. Since his debut in 2019, he has both become the artist of the year at P3 Gold and won a Grammys for this year’s hip hop.

At the same time, Yasin’s connections to gang crime and song texts on the subject have repeatedly given rise to debate and criticism. He has served two prison sentencesfor serious weapons crime and for preparation for human trafficking.

Now the rapper will do his first gigs in Sweden in nine years. It is about three festivals this summer: the garden festival in Kristianstad, fireball acid in Umeå and Alive Festival in Borlänge.

The reactions to the bookings have been divided. In one camp there are happy fans and defenders of free culture. In the second: critics of a « romanticization of gang crime”, Including Politician and police.

Both in Umeå and Borlänge the municipalities have chosen to withdraw sponsorship for each festival due to the yasin bookings. They believe that it is about their values ​​and what the municipality can put its name on.

– Although Yasin has now made a prayer, he has links to gang criminals that do not match what we want to work for. We have just signed an agreement with the police that we as a municipality should counteract crime, says Umeå Municipality’s business director Peter Juneblad.

He understands the objections that, for example, municipalities should not control the culture and believes that it has been a very difficult decision to make.

– The first feeling was that we should never in any way intervene in bookings by individual artists. It is an unsustainable door to open. But this is an official decision, not the politics, and we do not feel that tax funds can be put on this, he says.

The solution was to Pull it in unconditional sponsorship in the form of SEK 450,000 in event support. Instead, the money is spent on security -creating measures, such as tents that distribute water and security hosts on buses.

– It’s a mark, but it’s also some kind of compromise. The fireball acid is very important for us as a municipality, says Peter Juneblad.

Borlänge’s chairman of the municipal council Erik Nises (S), on the other hand, dismisses that the withdrawal of the sponsorship due to Yasin would violate the principle of arm’s length.

– This is something that you have to be able to discuss without getting there. If you let it become an all -free principle, it becomes a useless gossip, says Erik Nises.

For the Alive Festival Is it about Borlänge municipality pulling in the sponsorship at SEK 150,000. The festival is still arranged on the municipality’s land.

The organizers of the fireball acid, the garden festival and Alive Festival motivate their bookings by Yasin with his major impact and popularity as an artist. They all tell about positive reactions from the customer group.

– Our post on Instagram about the yasin booking became our most lacked ever, says Peter Arkhult, CEO of the Homerun Festivals, which arranges the fireball acid.

The garden festival has No agreement with the municipality this year. According to Ylva Schnorrenberger, who sits in the festival management, it should not have to do with Yasin. She is critical of municipalities withdrawing grants due to an artist booking.

– It is worrying when politicians and officials go in and censor or create conditions for which artists and culture we get to work with.

Ylva Schnorrenberger does not agree with the critics who believe that Yasin glorifies crime, but rather sees it as a description of the reality that the rapper lives in. She is supported by Peter Arkhult, CEO of the Homerun Festival who arranges the fireball acid.

– Most rappers in Sweden have a foreign background and have grown up in tough environments, it is clear that they depict that reality. If we are to work with inclusion, I do not think the solution is to try to stop cultural expressions. It becomes a matter of arm’s length between public and culture, he says.

The organizers also lift The fact that Yasin has now served its prison sentence.

– He has taken off and today focuses on the music. The opportunity for a new and better life must be available. This is the legal state we have, and then we have to comply with it, says Ylva Schnorrenberger.

That one would not believe in giving people a second chance for Erik Nises, chairman of the municipal council in Borlänge.

– As a municipality, we work with it every day through social efforts, with support for people with substance abuse problems and a drop -off business. This is an extreme case with a person who is linked to a gang conflict where people have been murdered, he says.

Patrik Schultz, CEO of Dala Live, which organizes the Alive Festival, says that many ticket buyers have been worried about canceling the yasin play because the municipality has withdrawn its financial support.

– It is Kids in the teens who have heard from them, families who will go here together, a teacher who has pulled together their entire school class to go here, he says.

However, none of the festivals plan to cancel the rapper. Neither the Alive Festival nor the fireball acid stands and falls with the municipalities’ contributions.

– But ultimately it can have consequences in the form of what you choose for artists for future festivals, of course, says Peter Arkhult at the Homerun Festival.

Read more:

Mohamed Yussuf: I haven’t written Yasin’s biography

Johannes Klenell: Hold on to you, the yasin debate is not Persson’s first rodeo