Georgia gun laws were responsible for cancelling the 2022 Music Midtown festival, Atlanta, Georgia.
On Monday, Live Nation announced that the festival — set to take place in September — was canceled, stating only, “[D]ue to circumstances beyond our control, Music Midtown will no longer be taking place this year. We are looking forward to reuniting in September and hope we can get back to enjoying the festival together again soon.”
Although Live Nation didn’t officially explain the reason for the cancellation of the festival, sources close to the event confirmed that it was. Rolling Stone that Georgia’s gun laws were to blame. Music Midtown is held at Piedmont Park, Atlanta. Parks are one of the many public spaces in Georgia that allow guns to be carried. Because the festival is a temporary visitor to the park, it does not have standing to enforce the ban. (The festival’s websiteAccording to the statement, “Weapons or explosives of any kind”(Prohibited.)
George Chidi, an Atlanta journalist, was the first one to report that Music Midtown might be cancelled due to gun laws. “My understanding is that it is because Georgia’s gun laws make it impossible to bar firearms from Piedmont Park, a condition required by many artists’ concert riders,”He posted the above tweet last Friday, July 29.
Music Midtown is close to being cancelled. It is believed that the Georgia gun laws prevent firearms from Piedmont Park. This is required by many of the artists who are concert riders. According to reliable sources, an announcement is on the way.#gapol
— George Chidi — The Atlanta Objective (@neonflag) July 29, 2022
According to Atlanta news outlet SaportaReport, Music Midtown’s gun ban was informally challenged in May by Phillip Evans, a gun rights advocate in the state. Evans actually had already been arrested for the same crime a month prior. A court case against Atlanta Botanical Garden was lost over its right to ban guns from its property, with the Georgia Supreme Court ruling that the Garden’s ban was valid since it leased its property long-term from the City of Atlanta. But because that ruling didn’t speak on short-term tenants of public property — such as Music Midtown — Evans argued he would likely prevail in a similar case against the festival.
Evans didn’t bring a case, but he did demand that Music Midtown lift its firearm ban. Evans was also Reports claim that you have sent written complaints about it to Live Nation and the festival’s security company as recently as last month.