(Amsterdam, NL) - Dutch tech-trance DJ Marco V, one of DJ Mag's Top 20 DJs, has cancelled his debut gig in Syria because of death threats. After getting death threats on his website, through his MySpace page and via his management (Anna Agency), Marco V decided he didn't want to take the risk that his tormentors were all talk and no action.

Marco said about the situation, 'Obviously we get all kinds of comments on the boards, mostly positive, some not so good, but never anything like the death threats we received this week. I am very upset that I won't be able to make it; it would have been a first for me, and a first for Syria…" Marco's manager, Anna Knaup, also commented that Marco was to be the first international DJ to play in Syria, a fact which has been disputed on his own website. 'Sara' from the site's guest-book cites the presence of, '…Brian Cross last year, Hed Kandy (sic) this summer and more a few years back.'

Jonathan Llewellyn at Get In PR told 365mag.com, 'The promoter was even willing to engage a military escort to get Marco from the airport, to his hotel, to the gig etc. but that's something Marco really didn't want to get into. It's hard to isolate these kinds of threats, due to some of them being on-line - Yahoo wouldn't help us. But if you go on Marco's website, you'll see a lot of very annoyed people there (because of the cancellation). They're blaming it on someone joking, but it's very hard to be sure..."

DJs get death threats: it's almost a commonplace occurrence. The rationale - if that term can be ascribed to people who'd threaten someone for playing records - is that as the most visible part of a scene, people are going to target DJs with their frustrations. They may hate them because they don't like their music, what they think the DJs stand for, the amount of money they make or a combination of all three - and they may be making idle threats, or they might have lethal intentions.