The Wake the Giant Music Festival is facing backlash after Grammy-nominated headliner Flo Rida used alcohol props on stage at the sober event in Thunder Bay, Ont., on Saturday.
The annual festival, which was launched in 2019, raises awareness to create a safe, inclusive environment for hundreds of Indigenous youth from remote northern communities who attend school in the city.
CBC Thunder Bay reached out to the Wake the Giant Musical Festival for comment, and was referred to a statement it released on social media on Sunday.
The statement said the festival’s team apologizes and acknowledges the harm done by the American rapper’s performance.
“The props used were not approved by organizers and we clearly communicated to the artist’s team that this was a sober event and that alcohol is not permitted on our stage,” the statement said.
The team also said it shared in the “hurt and disappointment” that many people felt, and wanted to assure the public that this performance does not align with the values of Wake the Giant or the Northern Nishnawbe Education Council, an Indigenous-run education authority.
“We take responsibility for booking the artist and we will take the lessons learned from this experience to ensure our core values will be at the forefront in choosing artists in the future,” the statement said.
Other performers at the festival included the American group the Wallflowers, featuring Jakob Dylan, Bob Dylan’s son, and Tia Wood, a Cree and Salish pop singer-songwriter from Canada.
Esther Maud, a city resident who was in the VIP section during the performance, attended to show her support for the event, and for her son and his youth drum group, Charging Thunder, which opened the event.
Maud said it might have helped if she had relistened to his music to reflect on what it means and whether she should support it.
“I just went in thinking and being excited that I get to see someone in person that I kind of grew up listening to. So it didn’t even dawn on me what he represents, and what he sings and puts into his music at all.”
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Maud said she’s going into six years of sobriety from alcohol. She said her mind was blown the moment she saw the first alcohol bottle on the stage during the show, in a space she has grown to love because it’s an alcohol- and drug-free event, and more bottles kept coming.
She could only think about people who are in early recovery or not as strong, and children thinking about what’s going on and if it was normal behaviour, Maud said.
Shortly after Flo Rida performed his third song, Maud left with her family and a friend.
If she were an organizer of the event, she said, “I probably would have put out the message to maybe the security and asked them to come and help us — tell them that we need to remove the bottles off the stage or … get somebody to maybe do a little pause, and then quickly regroup and let him know that this is not the place for that.”
Maud said she appreciated the music festival’s efforts in the wake of Flo Rida’s controversial performance, and understood they had communicated to him what the event is about.
But she said the apology could have been better, as the performance was “really heavy and very triggering for a lot of people.”
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Maud said she isn’t angry at the festival itself and hopes what happened serves as a learning experience.
“I’m disappointed. I’m upset that this happened, but at the same time, I don’t want this one event and this performer to ruin everything else that they work so hard to do.”
Organizers still have a chance to continue this work, she said, noting that she still wants to support them no matter what, as she sees their vision and knows how important it is.
“There are so many purposes and reasons to why this festival still needs to go and keep the momentum for the youth.”
