Will the 250th Celebration be halted if artists pull out?

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ust days after the officially nonpartisan nonprofit organizing group Freedom 250 announced a “first wave” of performers for the U.S. Semiquincentennial concert series in Washington, D.C., more than half of the acts announced they are pulling out because the event is politically charged.

Freedom 250, which President Donald Trump has vocally backed, announced on Wednesday nine musical performances for “The Great American State Fair,” one of many events which the Trump Administration has touted for celebrations of the country’s 250th anniversary on July 4 of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But a wave of performers have withdrawn in recent days.

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Country singer-songwriter Martina McBride, in a Thursday social media post, said she was “presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event but that turned out to be misleading.” She added that in the lead-up, she asked several questions and was assured by organizers of nonpartisanship, but that “yesterday things started changing and what we were told is, in fact, not what is happening.”

McBride’s performance was originally scheduled for June 25, but she said fans reached out to her after being publicly revealed in the line-up. “I’ve spent my entire career singing songs about real people with real issues,” she added. “It greatly upsets me that any fan who has been moved by my music may now feel like I’m abandoning the meaning behind those songs. I assure you, that is not the case.”

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Rapper Young MC was scheduled for a performance on June 26. But in a Facebook post, he announced the cancellation of his performance. “The artists were never told about any political involvement with the event,” he wrote, adding that despite claims from organizers that the event is nonpartisan, reports state that it was nonetheless “Trump-backed.” He then added, “I hope to perform in D.C. in the near future at an event that is not so politically charged.”

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Bret Michaels, in a lengthy post on social media early Friday, also announced that he’s bowing out of the event, claiming it has “evolved into something much more divisive than what I agreed to be part of.” Michaels, who won the Trump-hosted Celebrity Apprentice in 2010, said there were also concerns about the safety of his fans, his band, and his crew.

“This isn’t about politics,” he wrote. “It’s about staying true to what I’ve always believed in.” Michaels added that he intends to perform in D.C. at a later time “under circumstances where the focus can remain on what it should be—the music and the fans.”

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