For those not in the know, the dark forces festival is an event that happens every May up in New York. Music merch and goth. For its lifetime so far, it had its share a standard challenges.
Planning for next years had already started. Merchants and bands already locked down. After the deadline, on their own social media. Two artists announced that they would be performing onstage with the band, hate department. Two artists that hadn’t been invited for their personal stances. Apparently, hate department planned to Trojan horse them into the event. Needless to say it created quite an uproar once it got out and there was a lot of push back.
But the organizers did the right thing. Dropping hate department from the event. Keeping it inclusive and tolerant. I don’t have Facebook, never have. But if you do. Good actions like this can use boosting and acknowledgement.
My guess is that Steve was figuring the organizers would just grit their teeth and put up with it. Which they very well could have. But didn’t. Which is why I pointed it out.
Why would they even want to play to an audience of people they don’t want as fans etc boggles the mind. Perhaps trying to reclaim their relevance from before their own actions blew it up. But without changing those actions that would never work.
Thankfully some groups do and have made that effort. Joe Letz has been kicked out of more bands than most people have probably ever been in. And, thankfully, I heard that he was more than expelled not long ago from a band that I used to really like. So I can go back to listening to them without fear of supporting him in any way.