social media<\/a> to protest. The group said that when the mics were cut, they continued to perform a cappella to an enthusiastic crowd. \u201cAs we proceeded to do so, a rep from the Hill Country Galleria told us that if we didn\u2019t stop the performance, they would call the police and have us removed,\u201d the band said in a statement provided to the Statesman.\u00a0<\/p>\nA downtown Austin festival moves to Bee Cave<\/p>\n
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Hundreds of attendees walk among tents and booths on Sixth Street at the Pecan Street Festival in Austin on May 8, 2022. The festival moved to the Hill Country Galleria in Bee Cave last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aaron E. Martinez\/American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Following the show, the Hill Country Galleria issued an apology, saying that the language and content were inappropriate for the event and did not reflect its values.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe were not aware beforehand that the performance would include this type of content,\u201d a statement posted to the shopping center’s social media accounts said. \u201cAs soon as we became aware of what was occurring, we took immediate action and asked the performers to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Booker Lauren Bruno told the Statesman on Tuesday that a person who identified himself as a representative from the Hill Country Galleria told her the concert was shut down due to \u201cconcerns regarding what was considered appropriate for a conservative, family-oriented environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pecan Street Festival is put on by the nonprofit Pecan Street Association. For 49 years, the twice-yearly event was held on East Sixth Street, which was originally named Pecan Street. Last year, the festival relocated to the Hill Country Galleria in Bee Cave, an upscale suburb roughly 15 miles west of downtown Austin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the early shutdown, all bands booked for the festival received payment.<\/p>\n
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A missing clause in the contract<\/p>\n
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Hundreds of attendees walk among tents and booths on Sixth Street at the Pecan Street Festival in Austin, Texas on May 8, 2022. The festival, which bears the former name of Austin’s primary entertainment artery, no longer happens in downtown Austin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aaron E. Martinez\/American-Statesman<\/p>\n
FB&F says the band was never told not to use profanity.<\/p>\n
\u201cNowhere in our contracts or event (communications) did they request a clean set,\u201d Free Hamze said. \u201cIf they did, we could have easily accommodated that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Bruno said Zapata never used the term \u201cfamily friendly\u201d when he tapped her to book the daytime event at the suburban shopping center. But an original contract intended for the event that Zapata shared with the Statesman included a \u201cSpecific Content\u201d clause restricting \u201cany content that is unlawful, pornographic, profane, racist, sexually explicit, ethnically or culturally offensive, indecent, obscene or defamatory.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Bruno received the contract, she felt it needed to be updated to correct “mistakes and outdated information,” she said.<\/p>\n
She said she used the AI tool ChatGPT “as a drafting tool to help identify and suggest\u00a0revisions.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
In screenshots of her chats shared with the Statesman, the chatbot said the “Specific Content” clause of the contract “gets messy” and suggested softening the clause to say, “Performance shall not violate applicable law or intentionally incite violence or unlawful conduct.”<\/p>\n
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Bruno said she edited the contract on a shared DocHub account and that Zapata could see her changes. She passed the revised contract, which omitted the “Specific Content” clause, to Zapata for approval and encouraged him to have a lawyer review it.<\/p>\n
Zapata said he failed to look over the revised artist agreement for changes and omissions before sending Bruno a message to move forward with the booking process.<\/p>\n
Bruno said she provided a list of bands months in advance, and Zapata never raised concerns about content. Zapata said he reviewed some but not all of the bands that were selected to play the festival, and that choosing appropriate artists was the responsibility of the booker.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe contract that was provided to the artists was different from the one provided to the booking agent. I don\u2019t know why she changed it,\u201d Zapata said. \u201cThe one that we sent (to Bruno) is our standard contract. We\u2019ve put hundreds of bands on stage throughout the years and this is the first time we\u2019ve had an incident like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The no-profanity message never reached the artists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No profanity is \u2018common sense\u2019<\/p>\n
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Kara Falgout hugs a small goat in the petting zoo at the Pecan Street Festival in Austin on May 8, 2022.<\/p>\n
Aaron E. Martinez\/American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Rapper Phranchyze, half of the headlining duo Blackillac, told the Statesman it seemed like festival organizers didn\u2019t vet artists properly and didn\u2019t know the content of their music, but he said he found it unprofessional that organizers \u201covercorrected and punished everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe were told that the previous act had used profanity, and for that reason they canceled the rest of the performances,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were told our set had to be clean, but it turns out that was never in the contract that we signed\u2026 so that was misleading for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0Zapata said at an event like Pecan Street Festival, where kids are present, the expectation not to use profanity is \u201ccommon sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they engaged in profanity, it was our responsible decision to cut them off,\u201d Zapata said. He said the festival canceled Blackillac’s set because, \u201cthe disgust was so intense that it was decided to stop the music that day.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We work so hard all year long to provide a celebration and to make artists take money home,\u201d Zapata added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe could argue about if these were the right artists for something like this. That being said, they still deserve to be treated with professionalism and respect,\u201d Phranchyze said.<\/p>\n
FB&F echoed that sentiment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they respected us as artists, they could have given us a warning or made the request midway through the set,\u201d Free Hamze said.<\/p>\n