Festival season is finally here, which means most of us will be spending at least one summer weekend off our nuts in a big field, drinking warm beer at a drizzly campsite. Sadly (or not-so-sadly) for 600 neo-Nazis in Germany, this dream was a distant reality last weekend, as locals drained a far-right festival of their beer supply.
Any fun set to happen at the Schild und Schwert Festival (Shield and Sword Festival) in the east German town of Ostritz was initially thwarted by local police who imposed an alcohol ban on the event. As reported by Deutsche Welle, the ban was put in place to decrease the likelihood of violence, with police confiscating 4,400 litres of beer over the weekend.
Despite the authorities’ pretty thorough work, local residents predicted festival goers would attempt to buy booze once they were in Ostritz. In order to ensure the Nazis couldn’t enjoy a cold one with the #extremists, locals stocked up on hundreds of crates of beer from nearby shops.
“The plan was devised a week in advance”, one resident reportedly told the Bild newspaper. “We wanted to dry the Nazis out. We thought, if an alcohol ban is coming, we’ll empty the shelves at the Penny (supermarket).”
Rubbing salt in the wound, the cops kept tweeting photos of themselves with crates of confiscated beer.
The state’s minister president Michael Kretschmer praised the actions of the locals, telling the DPA news agency: “I am very impressed with how in such a small town… the citizens stand up to make it clear that right-wing extremists are not wanted here.”
Ostritz apparently has a reputation for far-right activism, though attendance at the 2019 festival was reduced by around half from 1,200 last year. It appears the town is determined to shake this image, with 1,400 police deployed and counter-protests being planned for the same weekend.
Fair play to the locals (and police TBH) – hopefully they all celebrated by getting absolutely rat-arsed on their confiscated beer supply. Probs tastes better when it’s taken from the far-right.