A Diplomatic Incident

When videos of Bloodhound Gang bass player Jared Hasselhoff pushing the Russian flag down the front of his pants and pulling it out the back appeared online, there was little chance of the act making it to its Kubana slot.

The videos came from an earlier concert in the Ukrainian city of Odessa and had Hasselhoff shouting: “Don’t tell Putin,” a reference to the Russian president.

Hasselhoff’s timing couldn’t have been worse as the U.S. and Russia are already at odds over Syria and National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, who was given temporary asylum in Russia to help him evade prosecution in the States.

Apart from overseeing the first Kubana to be staged on its new site at Anapa, Ostrovskiy and his team were hearing from Russian culture minister Vladimir Medinsky.

“Bloodhound Gang is packing its bags. These idiots will not perform in Kuban,” was the word from Medinsky.

Meanwhile, back at Ostrovskiy’s festival, Guano Apes, The Prodigy, Enter Shikari, Ska-P, and System Of A Down managed to avoid upsetting Russian sensibilities and made their headline slots.

The other acts avoiding the global newspaper headlines Aug. 1-7 included Die Arzte, Scooter, Misfits, The Subways, Pennywise, Skillet, and Flogging Molly.