Rumour and hysteria abound at the cancellation of the Reggae in The Park bash.

The organisers have released this statement:

Due to the recent negative publicity surrounding reggae music in the UK press, no suitable alternative venue could be found that was willing to take on the perceived security risk represented by “Reggae In The Park”. Therefore it is with sadness that the organisers have had to announce the cancellation of this event.

Which is a bit weird, to say the least.

The “negative publicity” was largely concentrated on Beenie Man, who was not due to appear. Sizzla and Vybz Cartel were due to make an appearance, however alongside a cast of others, none of whom are known for expressing violent homophobia on record (Marcia Griffiths, and Gregroy Isaacs, for example!)

Certainly, Outrage had requested that the organisers remove the Sizzla and Vybz from the bill:

Over the last few days, OutRage! had urged the promoters, Capital Radio/Choice FM and Apollo Entertainments/The Glen Yearwood Group, to drop the two singers � or face protests.

OutRage! also contacted the Mayor Ken Livingstone, the Metropolitan Police and the concert venue managements – first Tower Hamlets council (when the event was scheduled to be in Victoria Park), then Wembley Arena (when it was moved there).

At no point did OutRage! call for Reggae in the Park to be cancelled; only for the withdrawal of Vybz Kartel and Sizzla.

�We are delighted that Sizzla Kalonji and Vybz Kartel will not be performing, but sorry the whole event has been axed,� said Peter Tatchell of OutRage!

�OutRage! has no objection to the other performers in the stage line up and believes the concert should have gone ahead without the two murder-music singers.

�Reggae is an important musical genre which has made a positive contribution to popular culture. We want to see it thrive, but without homophobia and misogyny�, he said.

At best, cancelling the festival looks like an over-reaction.

However, an article in the Hackney Gazette shows that the festival had to be moved from its original venue in Victoria Park, to Wembley Arena because of technical reasons including “problems with the power supply and with accommodating the large soundsystems.”

So what is happening? Did the organisers realise that Vybz and Sizzla were too much of a draw to prevent the event making money if they were dropped? Were the screw ups with Victoria Park a factor? Do venue owners or the cops really think that a peaceful protest by Outrage is sufficient reason for the event to be pulled? Is all the bluff and bluster about the bad press which reggae has received just a way of covering up other issues?

One result of all of this has been a certain amount of hysteria from reggae fans who feel their music is being attacked, rather than particular elements within it. I feel that this is an overreaction and the fault of the cancellation of the festival has to lie with the organisers and not with Outrage.

Having said that, I do have my differences with Outrage’s tactics. As I said elsewhere:

I think that the difficulty with the approaches used so far to try and combat homophobia in dancehall is that they are only really engaging with the outskirts of the problem – people who express homophobia on records released by major labels in the UK.

This is understandable – those records are the ones which people hear – or rather, hear about.

Plus, you would think that major labels would be more responsive to pressure from activists than small labels releasing 7 inches in Jamaica, which only reach specialist shops here.

Thing is, it doesn’t work. We have the examples of Shabba and Buju from 15 years ago. They might get dropped from their labels, or they might not. But it doesn’t change the homophobia in dancehall and it doesn’t do anything to address the homophobia in jamaica, or in jamaican communities elsewhere.

The best result you are going to get from this is someone like Buju Banton who no longer makes public homophobic statements. There is no evidence to suggest that he’s renounced homophobia, and we can therefore conclude that he’s basically been muzzled.

The dynamics of this are interesting, if we perhaps take Buju’s view for a minute (but no longer than that!) – an artist who sings about oppression, and the legacy of colonialism and racism, is embraced by europeans for speaking out about some elements of corruption, but condemned for speaking about (what he considers to be) others – indeed his livelihood is threatened by doing so.

You can see why Buju might consider this to be yet more oppression – which in some ways confirms his view of western society’s corruption and decadence, which is more reason to stay close to your home crowd and chant down babylon.

I’m no apologist for homophobia, but I think you have to look wider than calling for some records to be banned.

What is needed is something which addresses the causes of homophobia in jamaica itself, which actually changes people’s views. Activists and dancehall fans in the UK can have some influence on that, but it’s going to take much more creativity and imagination than has been used so far, and it will take a long time.

Between now and then there will be a series of moral outrages when this keeps happening.