Music

Over 13 thousand people sign a petition to keep Chris Brown out of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

by Aaron Zorgel

A little more than month in advance of Dartmouth’s Energy 103.5 Rush summer music festival at Alderney Landing, a petition has garnered over 13,000 signatures demanding the cancellation of Chris Brown’s performance.

Nichole Snow launched the petition on Saturday, based on Brown’s reputation for violence. “He might be a great performer, but he’s a really bad person. So anything to stop people like that from being glamorized, I’m for,” she said in an interview to CBC.

The mere announcement of Brown as a festival headliners lead to four of Energy Rush’s main corporate sponsors withdrawing their support, and now the petition has added to the explosively negative social media response. Molson Coors Brewing Co., Touch of Radiance, the Halifax campus of the Centre for Arts and Technology, and Rogers all distanced themselves from the event.

There has been no official acknowledgement to the petition and/or whether it will affect the festival in any way. It’s likely the petition will have no impact on Energy 103.5 Rush, but at the very least, it’s promoting discussion with regard to celebrities and the normalization of domestic violence. But before you villainize Brown, extend your stance beyond this once instance, and remember that he’s not the first musician to commit domestic violence.

The Energy Rush summer music festival at Alderney Landing takes place on August 31st. Supporting acts have yet to be announced. You can sign the petition here, if you so choose.