NEW: Country Music Fest bans all “Confederate flag imagery” so no attendees will “fear for their personal safety”

The Country Music Association’s CMA Fest is one of the biggest country music events of the year, and draws enormous crowds. With big crowds and big venues come plenty of rules, including prohibitions on things like drones, folding chairs, drug paraphernalia, and, this, any kind of Confederate flag imagery.

That’s a heck of a prohibition considering how many dang things, from band shirts to retro Dukes of Hazzard swag to, you know, multiple state flags until recently.

“This year’s CMA Fest is our first major fan-facing event in nearly three years. We have always had policies in place that protect the safety of our fans and ban discrimination, but we felt it was important to further refine our language to explicitly outline what will and will not be tolerated,” said the CMA in a statement.

The line about the flag had been quietly added to the site and they only made a statement after the Tennessean asked them about it.

In the statement to the Tennessean they gave their reasoning.

“In line with our first CMA Fest lineup announcement in early April, our event policy was published on our website, which states any behavior that causes one of our attendees to fear for their personal safety will not be tolerated, and that is inclusive of any displays of the Confederate flag.”

I mean, look, be real. If y’all don’t want the imagery at your concert festival that’s fine. Do your thing.

But don’t say it’s so attendees won’t “fear for their personal safety.” Come on.

By the way, this is the CMA Fest Code of Conduct.

Code of Conduct:

CMA is committed to creating and sustaining an inclusive culture where all people have access to experience Country Music. Therefore, inappropriate behavior such as discrimination, harassment, any form of abuse and/or targeted comments which may cause any person to fear for their safety at the Event will not be tolerated. CMA has the sole discretion to eject or to refuse admission to any persons whose behavior is deemed inappropriate by CMA. For more on CMA’s commitment to inclusivity, visit https://www.cmaworld.com/about/.

And here’s the inclusivity statement they reference.

Don’t it sound purty? Like it was written by David Allan Coe and Charley Pride themselves.


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