One of the biggest country music festivals has put its boot down: No more Confederate flags.
The Country Music Association added “Confederate flag imagery of any kind” to the prohibited items list at the upcoming CMA Fest in Nashville, Tennessee.
The four-day festival is scheduled June 9-12 after a two-year postponement during the COVID-19 pandemic, the association announced online.
The association said the decision to ban Confederate flag imagery was an updated part of the policy to protect the safety of fans, according to a statement obtained by The Tennessean.
“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,” the CMA said in the statement, according to The Tennessean.
“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.”
McClatchy News reached out to the CMA for comment on Thursday and was awaiting a response.
Organizations such as the Stagecoach Festival in California and NASCAR have banned Confederate flags as well. NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace told NPR that he was proud of the racing organization, which banned the symbol in June 2020.
“No one should feel uncomfortable when they come to a NASCAR race. So it starts with Confederate flags. Get them out of here. They have no place for them,” he told NPR.
The CMA festival’s decision comes in the wake of multiple country stars being criticized for racially inappropriate comments or appearances with the Confederate flag.
Luke Combs, who will be performing at the upcoming CMA Fest, apologized after appearing with Confederate flags in early 2021, the Associated Press reported.
Combs said the photos were taken when he was younger and didn’t understand the message of the Confederate flag.
“And as I have grown in my time as an artist and as the world has changed drastically in the last five to seven years, I am now aware of how painful that image can be to someone else,” Combs said, according to the AP. “I would never want to be associated with something that brings so much hurt to someone else.”
Concertgoers can view a full list of prohibited items on the CMA Fest website.
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