Music Midtown festival at Piedmont Park canceled for 2024, reaction mixed

ATLANTA - Music Midtown, which is held at Piedmont Park, has been canceled for 2024.

According to a statement on Instagram, the festival is "going on hiatus this year."

The festival's organizers did not offer any explanation and simply encouraged music fans to continue supporting live music in Atlanta and to check back for updates in the future.

That announcement was met with mixed reactions from people who are familiar with the event.

Just days away from what he hoped would be the release of a line up for this year’s Music Midtown festival, longtime festival goer Tradell Glass said he was surprised and disappointed to learn there wouldn’t be one after organizers pulled some of the biggest names in hip hop, pop and rock last year.

"To be honest, it’s going to be a letdown for the city. I know that a lot of people come out from different states, like my friends from New York," he told FOX 5.

Some residents like Jessica Lavandier said they were relieved to hear it wouldn’t be returning to Piedmont Park in September.

"Music Midtown has been in the park for several years and it’s very disruptive to residents," she stated.

She said issues with traffic, noise and limited access to the park were just a few of the complaints from residents.

That’s on top of the impact thousands of shoes had on the park’s turf during last year’s festival.

"They privatize the park, they inconvenience the neighbors and then we’re left with a facility that is still not where it was when they arrived," she explained. "Eight months later, the park hasn’t recovered."

Lavandier said if it does make a comeback in 2025, she hopes they choose another venue.

Music Midtown was established in 1994 and is one of the most anticipated music festivals in metro Atlanta. It is held in mid-September. 

This isn't the first time the festival has gone on hiatus. The first hiatus happened in 2006. It lasted for 6 years. The festival returned in 2011 and then ran from 2011 to 2019. It was canceled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The festival was also canceled in 2022 after returning in 2021.

According to LiveNation, it was canceled in 2022 because of legal concerns over the organizers' ability to ban guns during the two-day event because of a recent court ruling. The ruling made it harder for private groups to prevent gun owners from bringing their weapons to "short-term events" on public land was related specifically to the Atlanta Botanical Garden's ability to ban guns from their property.

The festival returned in 2023 with a strict no weapons policy. Headliners in 2023 included P!nk, Billie Eilish, Guns N' Roses and Atlanta rapper Lil Baby.

FOX 5 made several attempts to reach organizers of Music Midtown and its parent company LiveNation for additional insight on what prompted this year’s cancelation. We’re still waiting to hear back.