City officials in Canada’s most crime-ridden region fear Christian rock concert
Local officials from one of North America's most crime-ridden regions say they have “safety concerns” over a planned music festival headlined by Christian musician Sean Feucht.
Local officials from one of North America's most crime-ridden regions say they have “safety concerns” over a planned music festival headlined by Christian musician Sean Feucht.
"In light of the safety concerns identified at the shows scheduled in Eastern Canada, staff are reviewing the safety considerations of this event," West Kelowna representatives said on Tuesday over the planned Feucht appearance.
West Kelowna sits directly across from the larger municipality of Kelowna, which recently had the ignominious distinction of being ranked number two in both Canada and the United States for property crime per capita.
In nearby Williams Lake, B.C., meanwhile, city officials declared a local “state of emergency” over their municipality's ongoing crime wave, with the mayor even pondering a nightly curfew and mass arrests to deal with the issue.
And yet, despite remaining relatively mum on the issue of persistent crime in the region, city officials in West Kelowna are ringing the alarm bells over potential “safety” and “event permitting” concerns related to Feucht.
Local media reported the decision to review "safety protocols" followed demands from local activist groups, some of whom have called for West Kelowna to cancel the concert entirely.
On Tuesday, a group calling itself “the Kelowna Pride Society” issued a statement opposing the performance.
The group claimed, without providing examples or evidence, that it had “received over 20 letters of public concern.” The statement went on to accuse Feucht of “aligning with far-right movements”—specifically “MAGA”—and of “repeatedly targeting” their community.
Feucht, who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for U.S. Congress in 2020, is a vocal supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump.
He is due to play at the Memorial Park Amphitheatre in West Kelowna on August 23.
This group are nothing to be scared of, they are Christian singers doing gods work. That is all. Stop making something out of nothing. Let them. We are all able to take from it what we want, leave the rest.