According to an article on Loudwire, a booker for the British heavy metal event Bloodstock Open Air will be “taking a step back” from the festival after she made a transphobic comment online.
The festival director, Vicky Hungerford, shared a message on Facebook revealing her contempt for presenting personal pronouns: “If you’re going to start putting pronouns on your email so I can refer to you as he/him she or her I’m binning [deleting] your emails…” Hungerford then screenshotted the post and shared it on other platforms, including Instagram.
After the post was met with backlash, she posted an explanation and apology on Twitter attempting to describe her “frustration leaking out that some people now feel they HAVE to sign off with a pronoun, not necessarily because they want to.” The second tweet clarified that she was not intending to upset anyone — both tweets have now been deleted.
The festival decided not to stream on Twitch after the incident and issued an apology on Twitter in an effort to reassure fans that they are working to educate themselves as a company and that Hungerford will take time off to educate herself on the subject.
The festival is working with the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, which was founded after the tragic loss of a young woman attacked for being herself. The foundation, which maintains the “mission to stamp out prejudice, hatred and intolerance everywhere,” stated that they do not take the director’s comments lightly and will soon discuss their future relationship with the festival.
The nature of this relationship may affect the festival, which is scheduled for August 11-14, 2022. Bands including Hatebreed, Eyehategod and Sleep Token are set to perform on the stage named after Lancaster.
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