Hands Off Our Live Events!
Professor Joe Goldblatt and Nancy Lynner at the Tartan Day Parade in New York City in 2023
Professor Joe Goldblatt
Censorship was an evil of the 1950’s whose flames of suspicion and fear were rapidly and continually fanned by the Republican Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin. I thought this perilous time had long passed until this week when I received a newsletterfrom the highly respected International Festivals and Events Association.
They reported in their newsletter that some festivals throughout the United States were potentially being threatened by the new US government’s administration policy regarding their opposition to diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI). In short, the administration does not wish DEI to be recognised in public events.
From the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to local festivals throughout the United States, arts, culture, and public celebrations are now severely threatened with funding being frozen if they embrace the principles of DEI in their programming.
This is a horrific nightmare for the sacred first amendment of the United State constitution where freedom of speech has been enshrined in law for 234 years. In my view, the primary purpose of live events is to guarantee freedom of speech and expression and any effort to weaken this right is in fact a fundamental threat for the live events industry both in the United States and also throughout the world.
Therefore, when I read that a Colombian Festival was cancelled in the US state of Michagan due to lack of funding because their events, according to some but not all potential sponsors, this represents an anti – DEI initiative, I was deeply troubled. Later when I read in the same newsletter that in Skagit Valley, Washington their annual Tulip Festival is facing objections from their Canadian neighbours due to the new tarifs proposed by the US government administration I could feel the chill all the way from Nova Scotia to Auld Scotia.
Whilst there is no definitive annual economic impact for live events world wide, the impact on small communities such as in Michagan and Washington can create seismic shocks for local hospitality businesses as well as through the multiplier effects they may negatively harm many other business enterprises locally, state wide, and through domestic trade and travel, federally as well.
When I was active in University classrooms for 47 years I often reminded my students that if they did not vote they did not have a say in the future of their society. Latterly, I reminded them that if they did not become active in politics or even stand for public office themselves they could not effectively influence the future of their community or nation and in turn the rest of the world.
A few of my students actually listened to my admonitions and eventually stood beside me at protests such as when the current President was first elected and a few more were actually elected to local community councils and local school boards.
I believe the live events industry must now rise up and roar their disapproval by uniformly defying the threats being imposed by the current US federal government administration and we must with one loud voice state until it is heard far and wide “Hands Off Our Live Events!” Perhaps our collective voices will be heard by our colleagues around the world and they will add, as has Canada, their own economic power to our voices to put the US government on permanent notice that our live events are as sacred to our citizens as the first amendment that has protected them for over 200 years.
As the US prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2026, let us hope that we shall also be honouring the commitments made by our founding fathers and mothers to liberty and justice for all citizens. I hope, as do millions of others, that the 250th anniversary of what was at one time the best example of democracy in the world will through the collective action of the live events industry demonstrate that we believe, as is stated in the US Declaration of Independence that, “These rights are sacred, that all people are sacred and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happliness.”
As skilled makers and guardians of live events, we will be held resposnible next year during our US 250th anniversary celebrations for insuring that this pursuit of happiness is still guaranteed through our steadfast commitment to keeping all dangerous hands far away and entirely off of our live events.
Professor Joe Goldblatt is Emeritus Professor of Planned Events at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, Scotland. His views are his own. To learn more about his views visit www.joegoldblatt.scot