Georgia gun legal guidelines are responsible for the cancellation of the 2022 Music Midtown pageant in Atlanta, Georgia.
On Monday, Reside Nation introduced that the pageant — set to happen in September — was canceled, stating solely, “[D]ue to circumstances past our management, Music Midtown will not be happening this yr. We’re trying ahead to reuniting in September and hope we are able to get again to having fun with the pageant collectively once more quickly.”
Although Reside Nation didn’t formally give a cause for the cancellation, sources who labored with the pageant confirmed to Rolling Stone that Georgia’s gun legal guidelines have been responsible. Since 2011, Music Midtown has taken place at Piedmont Park in Atlanta, and parks are among the many varied public areas in Georgia the place guns are allowed to be carried. The pageant, as a short lived person of the park, doesn’t have the standing to supersede that regulation and implement its personal ban. (The festival’s website acknowledged that “Weapons or explosives of any sort” are prohibited.)
Atlanta-based journalist George Chidi was the primary to report the chance that Music Midtown could be canceled as a result of gun legal guidelines. “My understanding is that it’s as a result of Georgia’s gun legal guidelines make it unattainable to bar firearms from Piedmont Park, a situation required by many artists’ live performance riders,” he wrote on Twitter final Friday, July 29.
Music Midtown is about to be cancelled. My understanding is that it’s as a result of Georgia’s gun legal guidelines make it unattainable to bar firearms from Piedmont Park, a situation required by many artists’ live performance riders. An announcement is coming, I’m instructed by a dependable supply.#gapol
— George Chidi — The Atlanta Goal (@neonflag) July 29, 2022
In accordance with the Atlanta information outlet SaportaReport, Music Midtown’s gun ban was informally challenged in Could by Phillip Evans, a gun rights advocate within the state. The month earlier than, Evans had really lost a court case against the Atlanta Botanical Garden over its proper to ban weapons from its property. Evans first introduced this problem in 2014, not lengthy after then-Governor Nathan Deal signed a brand new state regulation — that had turn out to be known as the “guns everywhere” bill — which expanded the place weapons have been permitted all through the state.
Regardless of that enlargement, Evans in the end misplaced his case towards the Botanical Backyard, with the Georgia Supreme Court docket ruling that the Backyard’s ban was legitimate because it leased its property long-term from the Metropolis of Atlanta. However as a result of that ruling didn’t communicate on short-term tenants of public property — resembling Music Midtown — Evans argued he would seemingly prevail in an identical case towards the pageant.
Although Evans by no means introduced a lawsuit, he demanded that Music Midtown carry its firearm ban. He was additionally reportedly sending written complaints about it to Reside Nation and the pageant’s safety firm as just lately as final month.
