Thursday, May 03, 2007

Woodstock

At tuesday on estonian tv there was shown a video footage of the siege and later storming of the music pub Woodstock in Tallinn during the riots and looting last week.
The guests had to defend two severe rounds of attacks. I walked there yesterday to take some pictures from the scene, I did not intend to go inside.
But then I saw two people going in through the covered doors. They were broken before.
First I walked to the shop behind, two step upstairs. Kind of Heavy Metal stuff, t-shirts and dark colored items are selled there. A young guy,with long black hair, roughly explained how his shop survived the attacks, the inside doors not broken. I asked him about the rumors that the so called estonian scinheads were apparend in the Woodstock nearby, maybe a target for the angry crowd outside. He explained that, yes, one could call them scinheads but not in the way we ussually imagine them. 3 or some of them supposed to be among the guests at that night. These Estonian scins view themselfs rather as security guards, not the guys who go out and insulting people. Let s call them small sized scinheads.
Then I asked if the Woodstock pub downstairs is open already. Yes he said and I went down. A cellar, kind of alternative sub culture we have in Germany, that s the way the environment looks like. I went further on and behind the bar there was a room where 6 or 7 people around the table were sitting and had a meeting. They were looking as they were part of a left wing anarcho scene, rather the opposite of scinheads. They saw me passing and one asked me what I was looking for. They were in a state of beeing pissed off with everything. I directly explained that I had seen the video before. And that I am covering this, but before I wanted to put the things the right way. Eventually one woman offered me to follow upstairs. She was the one with a perfect English. Going upstairs in the Woodstock we arrived in an after war space. Things broken, already piled up after cleaning 30 hours since the attack. They wanted the Woodstock to reopen it the other day. Also a reason why they were looking stressed out, but it was their pride to show they are there beside the experiences of that night. I started questioning how they defended the pub. All windows broken, and a hill of street stones shows what the attackers used as weapons among other things. Also fires were made with molotov coctails. The reason why the pub survived the assault were the socalled scins. They were throwing back the stones. Most other guests were hiding deeper behind the scene. The bar was strong enough to withstand the impact. Tables were turned with the plate towards the windows and used as barricades. When damages continued and the angry crowd outside were growing up to 200 people as they said, the guests found a way out. The rioters stormed in. At one point one thing the rioters did not realize, the way the guest had disappeared - something I should not explain - the Woodstockers find a way that saved their lives, as she remember it. The remaining rest of the pub was broken into pieces.
She knows an Argentinian restaurant owner who always emphasized that Estonia is a real quiet place comparing to others, now he wants to leave.
And only Estonian journalists and crews were there to cover this part. So it will be news only among Estonians. But that s the way it is.
Woodstock 1

Unten im Foto sind die zerbostenen Toilettenschuesseln zu sehen. Die extrem harte Steinplatte des Billardtischs in Truemmern. Viele Einrichtungsgegenstaende sind auch durch Feuer zerstoert.
Woodstock 2
Woodstock 3

Nur ein Teil der Steine
Woodstock

links die Tische, die als Barrikaden benutzt wurden, rechts die Bar, die die Verteidiger vor den Steinen schuetzte.
Woodstock 5

Eine zerborstene Tuer, rechts oben das Schloss.
Woodstock 6

Die Waffen unter anderem
Woodstock 7
Woodstock 8

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