The lead singer’s pro-Russian statements, including the statement that “Putin is a great guy,” have led to the cancellation of the American band Limp Bizkit concert planned for May next year in Tallinn, writes the ERR News.
The concert organizer Baltic Live Agency has deleted the event created on Facebook and briefly commented that circumstances beyond the organizers’ control have forced the cancellation of the concert. Advance ticket sales were supposed to start on the 10th of November, but were canceled before they even started. Already on the 7th of November, when the concert was announced, a storm of reactions erupted when it was reminded of the statements of the group’s lead singer Fred Durst in support of Russian military campaigns.
Among other controversial actions, a performance in which Durst appeared on stage with a poster reading “Crimea=Russia” also drew negative reactions. The band was subsequently banned from performing in Ukraine. The Estonian Foreign Ministry told ERR after announcing the concert that there was no place in Estonia for anyone supporting Russian aggression. Brita Kikkas, the ministry’s media advisor, pointed out that Estonia supports the territorial indivisibility of Ukraine and the principle that every centimeter of Ukrainian land belongs to Ukraine. Consequently, those who support the aggressor state do not belong in Estonia and its cultural space. The ministry has not made any further comments.
Baltic Live Agency confirmed that it is aware of Durst’s views. Agency spokesman Gunnar Viese said
the only explanation for the singer’s stance was that he was married to a Russian from Crimea at the time
and was living in a distorted information space.
Limp Bizkit became one of the most recognizable bands in the alternative metal genre in the early 2000s. Durst was married to Crimean-born makeup artist Kseniya Beryazina for several years, and after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, he praised Russian dictator Vladimir Putin as “a great guy with clear moral principles” and expressed interest in buying property in Crimea. In 2024, Durst wrote on the popular Russian social network VKontakte that he missed his Russian fans and hoped to meet them soon.
In 2020, Limp Bizkit performed in Lithuania, but only about 2,500 people showed up for the concert at a 20,000-seat stadium. A week later, the band performed in Latvia, and tickets for the concert were sold out. At the time, concert organizers told Lithuanian public media that they were aware of the lead singer’s comments, but that he had not made such comments since 2015.
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