NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)— One of the only live music events at Southern Decadence was cut short after the bar owner told the band Dog Park Dissidents the show would not go on.
The decision to end the live music and what happened after that caused confusion on social media Friday night.
For Dog Park Dissidents lead signer, Zac Xeper, taking the stage with Pansy Division was the dream. But that dream was short lived, and it wasn’t the rain that turned the Southern Decadence show into a disaster.
“He comes up and says, ‘if you don’t clear the stage, if you don’t get off the stage in the next five minutes, you’re going to jail,'” Zeke Xander, band drummer and event coordinator, said while recalling the moment a law enforcement official approached him on stage outside The Phoenix Bar.
Xander said he was told it was a permitting issue that turned down the music.
“We had been planning this for months,” Xander said. “We had a really good set. 8 p.m. to midnight was the original set we were given. That’s what permits were pulled for.”
According to The Phoenix Bar owner Tracy Deroche, the permit was to allow the block party to run until 2 a.m.
However, Deroche told the band since the city ordinance states no outdoor music any later than 10 p.m., that’s when they were scheduled to be done.
“I just want answers. I want to know why this happened,” lead singer Zac Xeper said.
Despite rumors on social media, a spokesman with the New Orleans Police Department told WGNO it was not at The Phoenix Friday. It was the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office and New Orleans City Constable’s office hired as security.
However, regardless of who pulled the plug, band members said they want to feel safe in the Crescent City.
“Whatever happened, it’s not a good look for the cops to be breaking up a gathering of queer people in the street during our holiday,” Xeper said.
The Phoenix was set to host another block party Saturday 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.
