Audience Members Attending Mykki Blanco Concert at Silent Green Told to Remove Keffiyeh upon Entry

On November 4, 2023, audience members attending a concert by Mykki Blanco were told to remove their keffiyehs before entering the venue at Silent Green, Berlin. The concert was part of Pitchfork Music Festival Berlin 2023, where “innovators, upcoming stars and cult figures have been gathered to celebrate Berlin's status as one of the most important cities for underground culture.” The evening featured performances by Blanco and two other artists, MorMor and MAVI.

In a statement posted on its official Instagram account on November 6, 2023, Silent Green acknowledged that the incident occurred. It explained that an agreement had been made with event organizers to prohibit flags inside the venue, and security staff were briefed on that policy. However, Silent Green noted that no directive had been given to ban keffiyehs or other items of clothing. It described the actions of security staff as the result of "miscommunication and inadequate supervision," and said it "strongly condemns the fact that a group of visitors were asked to take off their scarves and T-shirts at the entrance and were also forbidden to put them in their own bags.”

Despite this acknowledgement, Silent Green did not explain their decision to ban flags specifically for this event, as this has not been their consistent practice in the past. For example, a Ukraine fundraising concert hosted by Silent Green in 2022 featured a Ukrainian flag in its marketing materials, suggesting a welcoming stance toward such symbols.

Following the concert at Silent Green, a defamatory article about Mykki Blanco was published in taz on November 9, 2023. This article, which claimed that “Blanco indirectly calls on the audience for Israel-hate,” described how Blanco expressed frustration over her inability to speak freely during the concert and the constraints of performing in Germany. Blanco emphasized the need for the German audience to voice what she herself is not permitted to say.