French DJ Barbara Butch, one of the most recognisable figures of the Paris LGBTQ+ nightlife scene, saw her concert in Grenoble interrupted on Saturday July 18 after roughly 150 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in front of the stage during her performance at the Cabaret Frappé festival, an event the city has hosted for twenty-five years.
According to the city of Grenoble, the concert was stopped after around twenty minutes due to what the mairie described as an “intolerable aggression” in the middle of the show. The city reported that glass bottles and other projectiles were thrown “deliberately targeting the stage” and that electrical installations were sabotaged. Videos circulating on social media show protesters waving Palestinian flags, blowing whistles and gesturing at the artist while she performed.
The mobilisation had been building since May, when Barbara Butch, who is Jewish, signed a joint op-ed in support of the controversial Yadan bill aimed at “combating new forms of antisemitism”. The bill was later withdrawn following a petition that gathered more than 700,000 signatures. The local Grenoble branch of La France insoumise (LFI) had been calling for a boycott of the concert since the signature. Allan Brunon, an LFI Grenoble city councillor present on site, described the mobilisation as a “peaceful protest”, disputed the account of thrown projectiles, and told AFP that “La France insoumise never called for violence against Ms Butch”.
Barbara Butch, who was a central figure of the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony and has previously been the target of a large-scale cyberharassment campaign since that event, explained on her social channels that she signed the op-ed in her personal fight against antisemitism, and clarified that she does not support the current Israeli government’s policy. Together with her lawyer Audrey Msellati, she published a follow-up piece stating that they consider a “line has been crossed: the one that separates protest from coercion, disagreement from intimidation, speech from violence.” They have confirmed that legal complaints are being prepared, alongside the complaint already filed by the city of Grenoble.
The incident quickly reverberated across French politics. Mayor Laurence Ruffin’s Green-led city hall said it maintained the show in the name of “freedom of creation, freedom of expression and the autonomy of cultural programmers”, while Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, and other figures across the political spectrum weighed in. LFI national coordinator Manuel Bompard condemned any insults directed at the artist while defending the right to peaceful protest against her signature. The debate around the boycott of cultural figures in the context of the war in Gaza continues to divide the French left.
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