By Britt Lyle, contributor
On the morning of October 1, Afropunk Atlanta attendees received a grim email informing them that the long-awaited and highly anticipated music festival was cancelled due to “an ongoing and increasingly poor weather outlook” and that festival organizers would be issuing a full refund to the “10,000+ticket holders.” Safety was the main concern for the cancellation. The news came merely two days before the inaugural music festival was suppose to kick off with artists scheduled to perform such as D’Angelo, Tyler, The Creator, Santigold, Flying Lotus and more.
Many ticket holders from around the country, including some SCAD-Atlanta students, were less than enthused about the abrupt cancellation of their weekend plans. The general consciousness of “Afropunk Refugees” was anger and sadness and “deep, deep soul-crushing disappointment,” Travers Cooke said, describing his emotions upon hearing the announcement. The 29-year-old Sculpture major lamented his frustrations as he was looking forward to the metal and rap artists such as Suicidal Tendencies, Tyler, the Creator and Unlocking The Truth.
24-year-old Animation student Sean Lewis expressed similar sentiments of being “severely disappointed.” Lewis had a list of performers he had wished to see but was willing to open himself to any other artist that had a cool-sounding name. His goal for the festival was to expose himself to other types of musical genres outside of his norm and meet other black people with similar musical interests. Instead, however, he spent the weekend finishing homework.
An out-of-town couple, Andrea Jeannot and Garrett Bey decided to come to Atlanta, travelling from Tallahassee, Florida despite their initial reactions: shock, anger and devastation. “This was going to be my first music festival that was not sponsored by a university in a town that I had yet to visit,” Jeannot expressed. “I was going with friends who I hadn’t seen in too long and it was ruined.” Santigold, Lolawolf and Death Grips were some of their acts they were hoping to see. However, part of their wish was granted when The Masquerade announced online a last-minute midnight concert which Kelela headlined, selling out in less than a day. Their attendance at the unexpected concert in their eyes was the “only consolation prize” for the weekend. “[Kelela] had great stage presence,” Jeannot recalled. “[H]er voice is even more powerful in person and that’s rare for any artist.” The couple expressed they would definitely try again, although Bey seemed to think the weather was not active enough to have merited cancelling the festival entirely.
With so much wayward and lost potential around Atlanta last weekend siphoned into other events, including Kelela’s impromptu concert, there was a sense that Atlanta’s Afropunk would’ve been a magically spectacular event worthy of joining the legacy of not just Afropunk festivals in Brooklyn and Paris but music festivals from across the country and the world. Afropunk has decided to “look forward” to making their inaugural year in Atlanta in 2016. Let’s hope that nothing will derail it this time next year.
