(Credit: Sven Helge Czichy)

The Pussy Riot has announced that it will appear in Wiesbaden after canceling its engagement at the International May Festival.

The group said that it will perform at the Slaughterhouse and the concert will raise funds for Ukraine.

The concert in part is being seen as a direct response to the Staatstheater Wiesbaden’s festival and its hiring of Anna Netrebko. The punk band canceled its engagement back in February due to Netrebko’s participation and said “We didn’t know that Anna Netrebko is also gonna participate in this particular festival. We had no idea that there is a discussion going on and that we’ve been invited to fill in the gaps instead of Ukrainian artists that refused to participate. In such circumstances, we don’t want to participate either. Therefore we canceling our show in Wiesbaden out of solidarity with Ukrainian Artists.”

The festival has been under scrutiny for inviting Netrebko but its Artistic Director Uwe Eric Laufenberg defended his decision noting that “Ms. Netrebko is not guilty of anything. There is nothing she was convicted of. There is a general hysteria that wants to attach something to her. It’s a kind of moral hysteria. If anyone who had their picture taken with Putin before February 24 was banned from performing, politics, or writing, then it would be very empty here.” Netrebko herself has condemned the war on three occasions and has not returned to Russia since the beginning of the war.

The Pussy Riot’s new concert will be on May 24, 2023.