New England Punk, Goth & Metal Festival Cancelled

Lowell, Massachusetts's Lowell Sun reports:

With five weeks until show time, the city has pulled the plug on the New England Punk, Goth & Metal Festival scheduled for LeLacheur Park on Oct. 1-2.

The 70-band event, which was expected to draw 5,000 people each day, was to be the first concert ever staged at the ballpark, home to the Lowell Spinners minor-league baseball team. The news took Matthew Marchesi by surprise. The 25-year-old Lowell promoter said he has signed contracts with four headliners and sold 1,000 tickets.

“They are afraid of who we are and might be,” said Marchesi, whose company Spaz-tik
Ltd., runs events such as Slaughter House Saturdays at Reflections in Chelmsford.

Marchesi said he had a contract with Spinners management for the show and thought he was all set. But on Aug. 15, City Manager John Cox read about the “scheduled” Goth fest in The Sun and immediately contacted Spinners' officials. Cox said he told the Spinners that proper procedures weren't being followed and that he was unhappy with the choice of event at the city-owned ballpark.

“First of all, nobody sought the city's permission about it,” Cox told The Sun.

“Also, it's not the type of thing we want there. Someone like James Taylor would be more appropriate for the first concert.”

St. Onge told The Sun two weeks ago the Goth concert was a sure thing. The Sun made repeated attempts to contact St. Onge this week, but calls to City Hall and his office were not returned.

Organizers say the festival is being discriminated against because it features Goths, a subculture that favors dark clothing, dark makeup and moody music bordering on the macabre.

Read the full article at Lowell Sun.

Source: Lowell Sun