Stagecoach Festival is finally gearing up to make its return.
After being canceled the past two years due to the COVID pandemic, the California festival kicks off today and will feature performances from headliners Thomas Rhett, Carrie Underwood and Luke Combs, as well as Midland, Cody Jinks, Zach Bryan, Cody Johnson and a ton of others.
But what it won’t feature this year is the Confederate flag.
According to the festival’s code of conduct posted on its website, Stagecoach will not allow the Confederate flag or related imagery on any of the festival grounds, stating:
“Stagecoach provides an inclusive environment and rejects divisive symbols. The Confederate flag and related imagery are prohibited on the festival grounds and in the The Resort – this prohibition applies to people, clothing, and vehicles. Access will be denied to anyone who does not cooperate with this rule.”
The policy is also listed among the rules on the festival’s website, which says:
“No divisive symbols, including, without limitation, Confederate flags and racially disparaging or other inappropriate imagery/public displays.”
It doesn’t appear that the festival made any sort of public announcement or statement on the policy change.
The move comes at the first Stagecoach festival held since the fierce debate over the Confederate flag during the summer of 2020, when NASCAR also announced that they would ban the Confederate flag from their events.
And Maren Morris, who’s on the lineup for the festival’s opening night, had previously called for the flag to be banned from all festivals, saying during last year’s Country Radio Seminar:
“Can we just agree, at these country music festivals, I see the Confederate flags in the parking lots, I don’t want to play those festivals anymore. If you were a black person would you ever feel safe going to a show with those flying in the parking lot? No.
I feel like the most powerful thing as artists in our position right now is to make those demands of large organizations, festivals, promoters, whatnot. That’s one of the things we can do is say ‘No, I’m not doing this. Get rid of them.’”
During the same conversation, Stagecoach headliner Luke Combs spoke on, and again apologized for, his previous use of the Confederate flag in a 2015 music video:
“There is no excuse for those images. I’m not trying to say, ‘This is why they were there and it’s OK that they were there.’ It’s not OK. As a younger man, that was an image I associated to mean something else.
As I’ve grown in my time as an artist, and as the world has changed drastically in the last five to seven years, I am now aware how painful that image can be...I would never want to be associated with something that brings so much hurt to someone else.
There is no excuse for those images. I’m not trying to say, ‘This is why they were there and it’s OK that they were there.’ It’s not OK. As a younger man, that was an image I associated to mean something else.
As I’ve grown in my time as an artist, and as the world has changed drastically in the last five to seven years, I am now aware how painful that image can be...I would never want to be associated with something that brings so much hurt to someone else.”
This year’s festival will feature several black or mixed-race artists, including the legendary Smokey Robinson, Breland, Reyna Roberts, Amythyst Kiah, Randy Saavy and Rhiannon Giddens.
Stagecoach kicks off today, and will run through this Sunday.
