Middlelands Music Festival Rejected By Texas Renaissance Fest For 2018

This year was the first year for Middlelands Music Festival, and for those who attended they know, it was a resounding success. Drawing over 6o,000 people from all over the world, it would’ve been thought that its renewal would have been a sure thing. Well, it turns out that is not quite the case. According to a piece on local news outlet KHOU, local residents raised their concerns and complaints with the music festival citing, you guessed it, the noise. As a result of this decision the Texas Renaissance Festival GM, Terre Albert had the following statement:

“TRF is always looking for new ways to bring fun and magic to the Houston area, which is why we partnered with Insomniac, C3 Events and Live Nation, to create the Middlelands music festival on our grounds. Middlelands was a great success and brought over 60,000 people to the area from all over the country and the world. However, after a meeting with executive leadership and based on Texas Renaissance Festival’s overall mission, we have made the decision to not move forward in hosting the event again.”

What is truly unfortunate is that there was a scheduled meeting with the producer of the festival, Pasquale Rotella. However, as soon as he landed in Houston he found out the meeting was canceled leaving Insomniac unable to actually discuss the issues with residents and come to a resolution. Check out Pasquale’s statement below

????????IMPORTANT @MiddlelandsFest UPDATE: Happy to say we received an incredible amount of positive feedback and support from attendees and many local businesses. Thanks and love to all of you! We did experience some issues with sound complaints in the community, but these are not problems that are isolated to our shows. These are normal growing pains for any first-time festival… and there are always solutions. I flew to Houston with the intention of speaking to the community face to face in a Town Hall meeting. To spend three hours on a plane only to be told on arrival by a TRF official that they were cancelling the meeting is disappointing to say the least. Despite what the media is saying, I showed up, as I always do. I will always fight to the end for our culture. This is not the end of Middlelands. We will be back! Here’s a pic of me and #RainbowAuroraRotella rocking out on the Bassrush stage!! #footloose ????????????

A post shared by Pasquale Rotella (@pasqualerotella) on May 19, 2017 at 3:12pm PDT

As Pasquale noted the festival WILL go on, however, it looks like they will have to find another fairground to have the festival on. It truly is unfortunate that residents feel this type of way especially for an event that has such a positive economic impact on the local economy. But either way, what is their loss will be another fairgrounds gain, and we certainly are looking forward to the second round of Middlelands next year!

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[Photo credit: Jake West at Insomniac]

Middlelands Music Festival Rejected By Texas Renaissance Fest For 2018