At one neo-Nazi metal festival in Milan, Italy in April of 2019, cell phones and cameras weren’t allowed inside. But that wasn’t the case in December 2019 in Kyiv, Ukraine, at the annual Asgardsrei event, which is the neo-Nazi black metal music festival that’s made the Ukrainian capital home since 2015. This meant that fans of national socialist black metal (NSBM) bands from all over Europe and beyond could get photo and video souvenirs of their favourite Nazi-praising performers in action. Yet by posting and promoting these souvenirs on public social media profiles, especially Instagram, they also gave us a window into Kyiv’s Hitler-saluting, Sieg-Heil-ing, Nazi-promoting December tradition that is the Asgardsrei festival.
Asgardsrei And Social Media Asgardsrei, as this author described in an article for Haaretz before the event, is a festival of national socialist black metal (NSBM) that takes place every December in Kyiv, Ukraine. Started originally in Moscow by Russian far-right extremist Alexey Levkin, Asgardsrei moved with Levkin to Ukraine in 2014 when he left Russia to fight with the Azov Battalion (Levkin remains involved with the Azov movement). This year’s festival took place December 13 (Friday) through 15 (Sunday), 2019.
via bellingcat: Dispatches From Asgardsrei: Ukraine’s Annual Neo-Nazi Music Festival