Music Midtown Festival In Atlanta Canceled, Decision Linked To Georgia Gun Laws

Music Midtown, a music festival slated for Sept. 17-18 at Piedmont Park in Atlanta, has canceled this year's event, organizers announced Monday. The decision is believed to be related to new Georgia gun laws that allow a person to carry a firearm on public property.

Midtown Music wrote on its website that the festival would not take place this year because of “circumstances beyond our control.”

“We were looking forward to reuniting in September and hope we can all get back to enjoying the festival together again soon,” the festival wrote.

Thirty artists on four stages were to perform at the event. Those scheduled to perform included My Chemical Romance, Future, Jack White, Fall Out Boy, Phoebe Bridgers, Mitski, Phoenix, 2 Chainz, and Alec Benjamin. The festival also has “interactive sponsorship experiences” and a ferris wheel.

This Georgia gun law preventing the festival from taking place is the “Safe Carry Protection Act.” It is a 2019 refining of a previous 2014 law dubbed by critics as, “Guns Everywhere.”

The law allows citizens to carry firearms in bars, churches, schools, and private businesses with owners’ permission. Then the refining included publicly owned land, like Piedmont Park, into the law.

When refining the law, the Georgia Supreme Court said that on public property, businesses or groups could not bar guns. However, if a business or group holds a long-term lease for the land, they could prohibit guns during their lease.

Music Midtown holds a short-term lease for Piedmont Park. The short-term lease creates legal issues for the festival if it wants to bar guns from the event. Authorities likely can not enforce a gun ban from the event.

The law is unclear on short-term leases. Still, that did not stop pro-gun rights groups from emailing the festival. They also posted comments on the festival’s social media platforms for months. These groups threatened to pursue legal action against the festival, according to Billboard.

The festival may consider moving to private property.