Achi news desk-
A music festival in northwestern Quebec was canceled after a band accused organizers of censorship and kicked the lineup.
Gohan Twi frontman Simon Turcotte says the invitation to perform at the festival was canceled because of the band’s criticism of copper metal emitting arsenic in the area.
Turcotte says the metal band was scheduled to perform at the third edition of Alienfest in La Sarah, Queens, in June, but last week an organizer refused their participation, citing a “conflict of interest.”
The festival’s sponsor, Metal Marquis, is a supplier of horn metal in Royne-Noranda, Que., which in recent years has come under intense media and political criticism for its arsenic emissions.
Gohan Twi is a vocal critic of the smelter, with song lyrics condemning the plant and its owner, Glencore from Switzerland.
On Monday, Alienfest announced that the event would not take place due to what the festival said were conflicts of interest between sponsors and attendees.
But on Thursday the festival issued a second news release confirming there would be no future editions of the festival, a possibility they said had already been considered before they canceled the 2024 event.
– This report by The Canadian Press was first published on April 4, 2024.
