Last weekend I attended the Park in the Punk festival in Denver, Colorado. Before we even get into anything, I feel the need to specify that I did so without paying to get in, utilizing guest lists of bands I’ve worked with. Given the news that came out about the festival organizers being Trump donors, I was weary about going to this festival and supporting it in any way. Maybe I shouldn’t have even gone for free; it’s a question I’ve certainly been asking myself ever since. But there’s a bigger question that some are now asking, which is, “Why didn’t more bands drop out of this festival?”
Before I get into that, I want to acknowledge some of the bands that played the festival and have been very vocal in opposing the values of the festival owners. Local Denver ska band Younger Than Neil, who played early on Friday, flew a trans pride flag behind them on the stage and vowed to donate their earnings from this festival to The Trevor Project. Lots of bands took a moment to express particularly anti-Trump sentiments and, while they didn’t address the festival’s organizers directly, it was clear who they were talking to. Rising local feminist and overall political punk band Cheap Perfume took a moment to remind people that, contrary to anyone who might believe otherwise, it’s impossible to be a punk and a Trump supporter.
But probably the biggest stand of anyone who was there came from the Dropkick Murphys, who announced early in their set that this would be their final appearance at Punk in the Park. Dropkick vocalist Ken Casey also took a moment on the mic to remind people that, if you’re in “the punk rock realm” and support Trump, you’ve “twisted your mind into knots.” They are one of the only bands to have spoken publicly about their appearance at the festival, posting in the caption of an Instagram video after the Denver date:
“Hey folks . Punk Rock and Donald Trump just don’t belong together. So Upon finding out that Brew Ha Ha promotions donated to the Trump campaign we will not be playing any more Punk in the Park shows. We kept our commitment to the Denver show because we didn’t want to leave our supporters who bought tickets holding the bag.
“Thanks for your understanding on this matter.”
The one artist who spoke in favor of the festival’s organizers was Ben Weasel of Screeching Weasel, who said a lot of off-color things that night, such as making a joke about sexual assault by announcing to an audience member who was throwing beer cans at the stage that he was going to come down into the audience, put a dress on this person, and fuck them. Certainly punk rock is about shock value, but maybe that’s not something you should joke about.
Ben Weasel made the argument for punk being a big tent that had room for all sorts of political views, which is definitely a view I take issue with. I don’t believe that there’s room in punk for Trump supporters. But what irked me the most was the simplistic statement he made that if you disagree with someone’s politics, you should just sit down and have a conversation with them. That’s a really easy thing to say for a cishet white man knowing fully well that people with opposing viewpoints to him don’t oppose his very existence. As a trans woman, I don’t have that same privilege, so no, I will not be sitting down with people who think I shouldn’t exist.
Pennywise and Descendents played after Screeching Weasel and, even though I left after Pennywise and before the Descendents, I didn’t see Pennywise make any comment directly in response to Weasel’s remarks (although they said some general anti-Trump things), and I didn’t hear anything about the Descendents saying anything either. Why are punk bands, of all people, not speaking up more in this whole situation?
Russ Rankin of Good Riddance posed the question on Threads last week when he asked:
“Curious to know how bands who are, and have been, outspokenly left on the political spectrum are reconciling appearing at ‘Punk In The Park,’ performing for and lining the pockets of someone who supports everything most of these bands sing against.
“Not an indictment or judgement.
“Merely a query.”
And, while he poses a good question, there’s the issue that Good Riddance are one of the bands that played Punk in the Park after the Trump donations became public. Dillinger Four made a Threads account just to point this out to him, saying:
“Did you guys play SF? You asked the question but I didn’t see your answer? How did you reconcile it and would you do it again?
“I have asked this question to a lot of friends playing these fests over the past few months, a lot of friends I know we share, and I have yet to hear an answer that wasn’t a bullshit copout excuse to keep some money. Just drop off. There’s plenty of other festivals in this world.”
The next day, Dillinger Four added:
“I was actually interested to hear your take on this Russ”
Rankin has yet to respond.
If I were to take a guess, I would say that the majority of the bands that stayed on after the Trump donations came to light did so because they didn’t want to disappoint the fans who had already bought tickets, much like Dropkick Murphys said they did. I hope that Brew Ha Ha productions finds it much harder to book another iteration of Punk in the Park next year. But does the silence from bands, other than Dropkick Murphys, mean that we’ve reached a point where a Trump supporter organizing a punk festival is no longer a serious issue for us as a community?
I don’t mean this to shame anyone for remaining involved in Punk in the Park. I went, so maybe I don’t really have the right to do that. But I think there’s a lot of issues that we need to be talking about around this and speaking up about this. We cannot reach the point where this is normalized. I feel like the most important thing bands can say right now is that this is not normal and they won’t sign on again now that they know. Punk rock didn’t raise us to be silent, and this is a time to be loud.
Photo by Jon Power on Instagram
