Music Midtown Festival Canceled: Worrying, 'Uncontrollable' Reason Revealed

Music Midtown in Atlanta, Georgie, will miss its Piedmont Park crowd this year.

Originally, the festival scheduled a two-day outdoor concert series as part of its annual tradition since 1994. For this year, the organizers set it for September 17 to 18 and tapped Future, Fall Out Boy, and Jack White as headliners.

On Monday, the festival announced the saddening news about its schedule, saying it was canceled due to circumstances beyond its control.

"Hey Midtown fans - due to circumstances beyond our control, Music Midtown will no longer be taking place this year. We were looking forward to reuniting in September and hope we can all get back to enjoying the festival together again soon," it said.

Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman also tweeted it on Monday in which he called the development "a sad day."

According to Rolling Stone, over 50,000 people were present at the Music Midtown last year. Unfortunately, the organizers are yet to respond to news outlets' queries about the reason behind the cancelation.

However, the festival has since disclosed that refunds would be processed within the next 24 hours.

While they are yet to break silence on the matter, Loudwire divulged that the postponement was seemingly related to the 2019 Georgia court ruling about concealed carry gun law.

What Happened to Music Midtown?

Sources recently told Billboard (via Loudwire) that the change to Georgia's gun laws left the organizers with no choice but to cancel Music Midtown.

The law reportedly could leave organizers in danger of legal action for preventing "safe carry" gun owners with tickets from entering the festival with their guns since the venue is a public-owned grounds.

The news outlet added that the pro-gun rights groups had been posting comments on the festival's social media accounts in the past months. With that, the festival organizers needed to prevent a legal challenge from occurring.

The 2019 ruling in question, which critics dubbed as "Guns Everywhere" law, is officially known as the "Safe Carry Protection Act." It allows residents to carry guns in publicly owned land and private businesses with the owner's permission.

Since Piedmont Park, where the Music Midtown festival was scheduled to occur, is a publicly owned land, the act covers the concert, as well.

Music promoters Alex Cooley, Peter Conlon and Alex Hoffman had barred attendees from bringing guns into the festival since its creation in 1996.