An organizer called Siren Sound Syndicate had begun promoting a Bassnectar-headlined event at Gateway Center Arena outside Atlanta before locals stepped in.
Bassnectar was slated to headline a two-day event at Gateway Center Arena outside Atlanta on April 26 and 27. Members of the city’s dance music scene caught wind of the event — and after no small amount of uproar, it has been called off.
Local outfit Siren Sound Syndicate was organizing the event. A Facebook post by Atlanta drum and bass promoter MJ Lee that has been shared over 500 times helped draw attention to the endeavor, outlining Bassnectar’s alleged sexual misconduct and encouraging people in the community to put pressure on those involved.
“Now [Bassnectar] thinks he’s coming to Atlanta to perform,” reads a passage of the post. “I’m letting it be known that I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure this show does not happen.”
It continues: “I would like to encourage you all to help me boycott this show. As soon as we find out what venue it’s at we need to hound the fuck out of the venue until they cancel the show. If it’s at some warehouse somewhere, I want it shut down for lack of permits. Which I’m sure will be the case. We cannot let this show happen in Atlanta.”
Separately, members of the local community began organizing a public service announcement that included original graphics that could be shared on social media. These assets included calls to action to contact Live Nation as well as various journalists.
One participant named Juan Garcia emailed Gateway Center Arena Executive Director Mercedes Miller. In an exchange that has been reviewed by EDM Identity, he told her that he planned to contact the WNBA next as local basketball team Atlanta Dream routinely plays at the venue. She responded to tell him that the event had been canceled.
By yesterday evening Atlanta time, the event listing had been pulled from the Ticketmaster website. Gateway Center Arena issued a statement announcing that they called it off upon learning of Bassnectar’s allegations, writing, “The safety and well-being of our community are of utmost importance and as such, we have decided to cancel the event.”
Bassnectar (real name Lorin Ashton) once enjoyed the kind of fame any musician would dream of, rising through the ranks of bass music before amassing a diehard international following during the EDM explosion of 2010-2015. His success was bookended abruptly in 2020 when multiple women alleged that he engaged in sexual acts with them while they were underage.
The following year, two women filed a sexual abuse and human trafficking lawsuit against Ashton for alleged incidents from 2012-2016. Two additional women joined the case as plaintiffs a month later, and it is still ongoing at the time of writing.
This article has been updated to include information about the community PSA as well as Gateway Center Arena’s decision to cancel the event, and to clarify that the event was listed on Ticketmaster’s website rather than that of Live Nation.
