Halifax music fest apologizes for ‘overt racism’ at Lido Pimienta concert

Padawanbater2

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The Halifax Pop Explosion music festival is apologizing for the actions of a volunteer who interrupted a performance by Polaris Prize-winning singer Lido Pimienta with "overt racism."

A statement on behalf of the festival's board of directors addresses the singer directly and promises to make changes to improve "anti-oppression and anti-racism training" over the next year.

"We are sorry that one of our volunteers interrupted your art, your show, and your audience by being aggressive and racist," reads a Facebook post signed by vice-chairman Georgie Dudka.

The Halifax festival says the incident involved a white volunteer photographer and several white audience members who reacted negatively when Pimienta invited "brown girls to the front" during her Oct. 19 show.

The outspoken singer, who took home the Polaris Prize for her album "La Papessa" last month, frequently asks her audience to welcome people of colour to the front of the stage. In turn, she requests that white people move back.

While Dudka doesn't offer much detail in his post, festival spokesman Trevor Murphy confirmed Allie O'Manique's account of what transpired.

O'Manique says the problems started when the volunteer female photographer refused to step away from her spot near the front. It led to a clash with nearby audience members who became angered over her insistence on remaining near the stage to take photos, says O'Manique, who performs as dream-pop act Trails and shares management with Pimienta.

"She just kept saying, 'Move to the back,"' says O'Manique.

"Finally after saying it about 10 times — and the woman refused to move — (Pimienta) said, 'You're cutting into my set time and you're disrespecting these women, and I don't have time for this."'

Event organizers say the volunteer was removed from the show and ultimately chose to sever ties with the festival.

Pimienta's management did not respond to requests for comment.

Julia-Simone Rutgers, one of the Halifax women invited by Pimienta to shift closer to the stage, says she was surprised by the photographer's refusal to move.

"There's a certain understanding that if an artist asks a crowd to do something ... the artist is in charge in that space," she says.

The clash was emblematic of the opinion that prioritizing people of colour — particularly women — is "reverse racist," says Rutgers.

"It's those mindsets that create that sort of pushback at the shows," she says.

"I don't know if I would say it can be attributed to the crowd Pop Explosion gets, or more so just the sort of people that exist in Halifax and the mindsets that prevail here."

The four-day music bash, which wrapped Oct. 21, is usually considered a diverse affair with performances by more than 150 artists, comedians and speakers.

Pimienta's show had its share of audience tensions, says O'Manique, who highlighted two instances that happened near her in the audience.

"There was a man standing behind me, an older man, who was referring to Lido as a racist because she was dividing the crowd," she says.

"I also saw two women fighting closer to me, yelling in each other's faces and giving each other the finger."

In closing their statement, Halifax Pop Explosion organizers specifically addressed people of colour.

"We are going to try our best as a festival to create ways to make our spaces safer and more accessible for you. We hope we can rebuild some trust and that you will come back to our shows."


Thoughts?
 
my thoughts are "why is padaraper posting the same aticles that white supremacists post to complain about their persecution?"
 
Segregating people based on their skin color isn't racist because they're white?
oh the humanity. these white people went through real hell.

shut the fuck up, padaraper. this is the kind of whiny crap that white supremacists post and we all know it you sniveling little bitch.
 
oh the humanity. these white people went through real hell.

shut the fuck up, padaraper. this is the kind of whiny crap that white supremacists post and we all know it you sniveling little bitch.
Imagine if some white musician told the interracial crowd that black people and other minorities need to move back so the white people could come up front. "Oh the humanity!"

It's racist regardless of skin color. It's obvious you don't actually care about racism, you care about control. In this case, it's your narcissistic need to control the narrative that you can't be racist against white people
 
Imagine if some white musician told the interracial crowd that black people and other minorities need to move back so the white people could come up front.

america did that for centuries you naive child.

perhaps you are not familiar with the works of jane elliot, perhaps you have just been radicalized by the racists at reddit into becoming a white supremacist.

whatever it is, your are a fucking naive child to call what happened at some pop festival an act of racism on par with actual systemic discrimination that happens in america to this day.
 
Right, and it was wrong then. Just as it's wrong now. You acknowledge it when the victims are minorities but deny it when the victims are white. To you, white people are incapable of being victims by the very nature of them being white

literal nazis are marching in america and you are calling white concert-goers "victims"?

jesus fucking christ you are hopeless.
 
literal nazis are marching in america and you are calling white concert-goers "victims"?

jesus fucking christ you are hopeless.
No you're racist. Everything you said in this thread proves it. You're clearly biased against white people by refusing to acknowledge their rights.

That makes you an intolerant racist, Buckwit. Apparently the Democratic Party faithful aren't so different from right wing nationalist Republicans after all- you just discriminate against different colors.
 
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