Fans and event organizers blame Georgia gun laws for Music Midtown cancellation – WSB-TV Channel 2

ATLANTA — Music Midtown announced Monday that the weekend-long music festival has been canceled.

In a Facebook post, Music Midtown said, “Due to circumstances beyond our control, Music Midtown will no longer be taking place this year.”

Channel 2’s Dave Huddleston learned on Monday that it appears a local man may be challenging public events that prevent people from carrying guns in public places.

Georgia passed a law in 2014 stating that guns cannot be banned on public property, such as Piedmont Park.

Music Midtown is one of the largest music festivals in the Southeast. Festival headliners included My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Atlanta rapper Future and Jack White. Atlanta rapper 2 Chainz was also scheduled to perform.

The two-day concert was scheduled to take place on September 17 and 18.

Channel 2 Action News got exclusive details on what could have led to the cancellation.

We have obtained an email from two independent sources that shows a Monroe County man telling the city attorney on May 4, “First of all, I disagree that the purchase of ticket is a waiver of my 2nd and 4th Amendment rights. The second problem is that legally carried weapons cannot be banned from public parks.

While festival organizers haven’t given a specific reason for its cancellation, some city and event organizers say it’s because the festival couldn’t ban guns from the park.

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“Under Georgia law, people have been allowed to wear Music Midtown without a ban for at least 8 years,” said John Monroe, vice president of GA2A, a state-run gun advocacy organization.

Monroe told Huddleston that recent legal challenges to Georgia’s 2014 law were upheld. This law allows people to carry guns in public places like Piedmont Park.

“It has been the law for several years in Georgia if a private entity such as Live Nation, the promoter of Music Midtown, if they lease the property where they have the festival to a public entity such as in this case the city of Atlanta to Piedmont Park, they have to follow public property rules,” Monroe said.

“I know a lot of artist runners have that in their contract. And a public place like this, if you can’t, they won’t happen,” said festival-goer Trent Thurman.

Huddleston tried to contact Music Midtown and Live Nation to find out why they canceled the festival. At the time of writing this article, he had not received a response.

The cancellation notice states that those who purchased tickets can get a full refund through the site where they purchased them.

Music Midtown started in 1994 and took place every year until 2005. After a six-year hiatus, it returned in 2011.

Around 50,000 people attended last year when Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers and Maroon 5 performed.

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