Comment As gun control legislation stalls at the federal level, developments on the music festival circuit have underscored the impact of the state laws: Atlanta’s Music Midtown festival, originally scheduled for next month, was canceled Monday due to a ruling Georgia court that blocked organizers from banning guns on festival grounds. “Due to circumstances beyond our control, Music Midtown will no longer take place this year,” the festival announced in a statement on its website and social media accounts. “We’ve been looking forward to seeing each other again in September and hope we can all enjoy the festival together again soon.” Founded in 1994 and most recently held last September, Music Midtown was scheduled this year for September 17-18 with Fall Out Boy, Future, Jack White and My Chemical Romance as headliners. The last decade’s festivals took place in Piedmont Park, about 200 acres of land partially managed by the city. According to Billboard and Rolling Stone, citing industry sources, legal liabilities stemming from Georgia’s extensive pro-gun laws were responsible for the cancellation. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution cited officials who also attributed the decision to “ongoing legal ramifications.” In 2014, Gov. Nathan Deal (R) signed a sweeping package of bills that expanded where people could carry concealed firearms to include places like bars, parks, airport sections and some churches. The Safe Carry Protection Act, also referred to as the “guns everywhere” bill, gave the state more power to preempt local gun restrictions. That same year, pro-gun activist Philip Evans sued the Atlanta Botanical Gardens after he was escorted off the premises for possessing a gun. The Georgia Supreme Court heard the case in 2019 and ruled that businesses with long-term leases could ban firearms on public land. a later appeals court ruling from this year reinforced that short-term events had little power to limit guns. While Music Midtown took place last year, gun rights advocates questioned the gun ban this time around. Evans argued in May that his legal loss of the garden, which has a 50-year lease from the city, created a clearer path to victory against short-term occupants of public land like the festival. He told the Journal-Constitution on Monday that he notified organizers of his “legal concerns.” Neither Music Midtown nor its owner, promoter Live Nation, responded to a Washington Post request for additional comment on the decision to cancel the festival. When reached Monday, a member of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’ communications team wrote in an email: “We will look into this.” City Councilman Michael Julian Bond told The Post on Tuesday that while Live Nation had not confirmed to him the reason behind the cancellation, he could see why organizers would be hesitant to hold the event without gun restrictions : The lawn at Piedmont Park is “exposed on every side, practically,” he said. Bond compared the opening of the Piedmont park to the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas, produced by Live Nation, where, in 2017, a gunman opened fire and killed dozens of people. He said the proliferation of guns, moderated by the state’s relaxing restrictions on them, has economic and social costs. “As a society, we trade one set of rights for another,” he continued. “You can carry all the crazy weapons you want, but you can’t assemble peacefully.” As gun ownership rises, Georgia wants to ease restrictions: It’s the ‘wild, wild west’ Festival security has come under intense scrutiny since the crowd at rapper Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival in November killed 10 spectators and injured hundreds. A Post investigation found that most of the casualties at the Houston event were in a tightly packed area. Morgan Milardo, executive director of the Berklee Folk Music Institute, said she has seen an increase in security procedures implemented across the festival circuit this summer. Some guide performers and their crew members on what to do in an emergency, such as if they spot an incident unfolding from the stage. Festival security tends to be “pretty black and white,” according to Milardo. He said that including specific safeguards in a rider — or a contractual set of requirements for an artist to perform at a venue, which local journalist George Chidi pointed out Friday as a possible reason for Music Midtown’s impending cancellation — is standard practice. . What changed here were the laws surrounding the space. “It’s an open conversation in the music industry right now: How do we keep everyone safe?” Milardo said. “These things unfortunately happen and it’s something we have to be careful about. Organizers go to great lengths to keep their events safe, and artists go to great lengths… it’s too far.” The cancellation of Music Midtown isn’t the first time entertainment industry figures have drawn attention to Georgia’s controversial laws. In 2019, after Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed a “heartbeat bill” that effectively banned most abortions, Hollywood filmmakers announced their intention to boycott Georgia. The studios didn’t follow through on the threats, likely because of the state’s generous tax credit. Most studios remained quiet again last year after Kemp signed into law voting restrictions that, as CNBC noted at the time, drew criticism from major companies like Coca-Cola and Delta. As backlash continued to mount, Major League Baseball moved the All-Star Game from Atlanta in protest. Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate running against Kemp for governor of Georgia, issued a lengthy statement Monday night on Twitter condemning his “dangerous and extreme gun agenda.” The nixed festival “is proof that his reckless policies also put Georgia’s economy at risk,” the statement said, later noting that the incident “would cost Georgia’s economy a proven $50 million.” Phoebe Bridgers, a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter who was scheduled to perform at Music Midtown, retweeted Abrams’ post. Kemp’s office did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
