Insane Clown Posse’s Gathering of the Juggalos to move again

This post has been updated. See note below for details.

Insane Clown Posse has scotched plans to hold its annual Gathering of the Juggalos festival at a previously announced site in Kaiser, Mo., but the theatrical music collective insists that the event will go on once a new location is found.

The Illinois-based group released an extended statement Thursday detailing why operators of Crybaby Campground in Kaiser decided not to host the event this year after previously announcing that it would take place there.

“This was a hard decision,” the Posse’s statement said, “and they did not make it lightly.”

Park officials became concerned that local residents might create problems after getting wind of a lawsuit filed by ICP’s label and the American Civil Liberties Union against the FBI for labeling the Juggalos, as ICP’s fans are known, as a gang.

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“Some people in the community where the Gathering was to be held … kept saying a ‘gang’ was coming to their town and we heard reports that some people were starting to arm themselves,” the statement said.

“Because of this, the owners of [the campground] were getting non-stop calls from angry neighbors and some even stopped by their property threatening to boycott their campground and even started a petition against them,” the statement said. “It was just too much of an onslaught of negative energy coming at them for them to handle.

“We are now hard at work to make sure there is a new location locked in soon and even as the forces that be continue to oppress us and try to thwart the Juggalo community at every turn,” the statement concluded. “We will endure.”

The statement said that fans who bought tickets will receive refunds and that information on a new location is expected soon. The festival moved in 2013 from Illinois to Crybaby Campground after residents near the Illinois site had complained about the event.

The full statement is posted on ICP’s official website.

Update on Feb. 14: An earlier version of this post misidentified ICP’s official website as ISP’s official website.

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