Istanbul pulled Anyma’s show. The reason came only over the phone

The Anyma show in Istanbul, booked for the twelfth of September, has been cancelled. The decision was taken by the city governor’s office — not the venue, not the promoter.

The cancellation was announced by the promoter Only You Live on its own page.

This was the audiovisual solo show ÆDEN at the Ataköy Marina Arena, part of the world tour. Around twelve thousand people were expected, and most of the tickets went not to Turks but to those who were flying in for the night.

What happened ten days before the concert

In early September a campaign spread across Turkish social media: single frames were cut out of the show’s video visuals, labelled “satanic rituals” and used to demand a ban. Within days came the first reports that the concert was off.

Then it got strange. There was no official statement from the governor’s office, neither on its site nor on its social media. The promoter stayed silent, tickets were still on sale, and the ticketing hotline kept assuring callers, by recorded message, that the event would go ahead as planned.

Clarity came only when the Turkish fact-checking platform Teyit got through by phone to the head of the governor’s office press department. He confirmed both the cancellation and the reason — “satanic elements” in the performance. And he said, separately, that there would be no written statement.

What the artist said in reply

Matteo Milleri, who performs as Anyma, answered a few days later. In his account the darker fragments of the show were taken out of context, altered, laid under different music and pushed online to manufacture a sinister narrative that the show itself does not contain.

“We intend to appeal the decision and will continue trying to find a path back to Türkiye and to the Turkish people,” the artist wrote.

He also insists that none of his visuals are AI-generated — and adds that the irony is that the very people condemning him used AI to rework his art into their own version of events.

Anyma is one half of Tale Of Us and the founder of Afterlife, one of the biggest brands in melodic techno. The cancellation cost more than a concert: promoters put the lost media and tourism value in the millions.

Earlier we wrote about how London’s fabric moved into a working cathedral for four years — a story about club culture cutting a deal with institutions.