Porter Robinson to rename musical festival

By Marcel Penaranda, CONTRIBUTOR


Grammy-nominated electronic dance music producer Porter Robinson and live music promoter Goldenvoice received backlash from local event organizers after their announcement of the new music festival called Multiverse Festival.
Robinson and Goldenvoice were under fire after announcing Multiverse Festival in Middle Harbor Shoreline in Oakland for having a name similar to the preexisting festival based in Oakland.
Event organizers Jade Ariana Fair and Shawna Shanté Scroggins of Multivrs is Illuminated, a donation-based punk and experimental music festival centered around black and brown LGBTQ artists, stated that their online presence and local culture were “trampled” with the social media marketing released by Robinson and Goldenvoice.
Multivrs is Illuminated organizers expressed their grievances to Robinson and Goldenvoice through Instagram on March 6 in an open letter requesting the two parties publicly apologize, rename the festival, and donate to their own festival.
“It demonstrates Robinson’s/Goldenvoice’s total lack of connection to the Bay Area and negligence on the part of his team to prevent an embarrassing situation such as this,” the letter expressed.
Oakland event organizers view the Robinson and Goldenvoice powerhouse as eclipsing their own cause and efforts.
“In my eyes, [it’s part of] a whole chain of events taking away opportunities from people who don’t have major funding or major resources to create cultural spaces,” Scroggins said.
Subsidiary to the United States’ second largest music promoter Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), Goldenvoice promotes well-known music festivals such as Coachella and Stagecoach.
The music promoter made its move into the Bay Area in 2004, initially buying real estate that housed the Warfield in San Francisco and not long after Regency Ballroom and Social Hall. More recently, Goldenvoice acquired Slims and Great American Music Hall adding to their presence in iconic San Francisco venues.
“I feel like the right thing to do is change the name of our festival,” Robinson stated after becoming aware of Multivrs is Illuminated.
Robinson and Goldenvoice eventually changed the name of the festival to Second Sky Festival in response to the backlash.
“To my fans, please respect my decision here & respect the other event,” Robinson stated after renaming his event to Second Sky Festival. Since then Robinson nor Goldenvoice have made statements regarding the backlash.