Neo-Nazi music festival looks set to go ahead in Melbourne, despite widespread backlash

A controversial far-right music festival looks likely to go ahead, despite more than 28,000 people signing a petition calling for it to be cancelled.

Hammered Music Festival, which is being advertised online by controversial groups Blood & Honour Australia and the Southern Cross Hammerskins, is due to be held at an undisclosed location in Melbourne this Saturday.

Premier Daniel Andrews has condemned the neo-Nazi concert, but says the government doesn’t have the power to shut it down.

“There’s no place in Victoria for concerts like that. This is ultimately a celebration of hate and that doesn’t sit well with many Victorians at all,” he said.

The state government is taking advice on whether the law should be changed to make it easier for the government to shut down racist events.

The concert is set to feature white supremacist bands singing songs which encourage the killing of Jews, Muslims and migrants.

Human Rights Campaign Director for GetUp!, Shen Narayanasamy, called for the event to be cancelled immediately.

“These groups are actually linked to international neo-Nazi organisations and they have been banned in other countries because, as often happens with these kinds of groups, words have moved to actual bullets, violence and hatred, and actual murder of innocent people,” she told 3AW’s Tom Elliott.

One of the groups organising the concert, Blood & Honor, is on Canada’s terror watchlist.

Ms Narayanasamy said the messages sent by the far-right groups go beyond free speech consideration.

“It has moved way past that, to the incitement of hatred and violence,” she said.

“Our laws can and should protect our community from people who go around inciting hatred and violence.”

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