Taking a page from this month’s petition to bootKanye West from the Glastonbury music festival because he isn’t a rock band—thecause célèbre of all your relatives on Facebook whose views onrace make you uncomfortable—some electronic music fans have takento the same website to voice their displeasure with Summerfest’s Paris Hiltonbooking. On a Change.org petition titled “Remove Paris Hilton from the Lineup,” userThomas Neill begs Summerfest to remove the celebrity DJ on the grounds that herbooking “diminishes dance music”:
This is a middle finger to anyone who paid to go this festival. You claim to beone of the premier festivals in America and then you go ahead and hire someonelike Paris Hilton. She is a disgrace to dance music and is a perfect example ofwhat spoiled celebrities do when they're bored. She has no right to be paidgood money to stand up there and clap her hands on a stage. That moneycould be used to hire credible djs that actually work hard on their craft. IfParis has any respect for dance music she would step down as she's clearly notworthy. Signing her to Summerfest is supporting a false, non credible, andquite frankly overall terrible "musician"/"DJ". This diminishesdance music as nothing more than a cheap show and if you have any respect forthe integrity of music you will remove Paris Hilton from the lineup. Pleasesign and share this petition together we can at least show Paris that we won'tstand for this.
As of this morning, the petition has more than 1,700 supporters. “Embarrassingfor Summerfest to give in to pop-culture fame versus true musical talent,”wrote one. Another contended that “By allowing her on the lineup you’re prettymuch saying anyone with enough money can buy themselves a headlining spot.”
Since she started doing them in 2012, Hilton’s DJ gigs have hit the nervesof a vocal faction of the electronic music scene, which has pushed back bysharing videos of her flubs and by deriding her on horriblymisogynistic Facebook pages. And yes, Hilton plays into some persistent stereotypes ofdance music as a vapid, money-obsessed culture that cares more about appearancesthan art, so you can see why EDM enthusiasts are sensitive to that. You can also see why some would take her booking as an insult, especiallysince, at least as of right now, Summerfest hasn’t announced much else in theway of electronic music this year.
But it’s a minor indignity in the scheme of things. When Keanu Reeves picks upa guitar, he doesn’t diminish all of rock music. He just embarrasses himself abit, while delighting crowds of people who come out because they want to see acelebrity. We've all wanted to see a celebrity at some point in our lives. It’s fun. It’s a spectacle. It’s something to do. And while I’m allfor Summerfest supporting deserving artists, entertaining hoards of people whoare just looking for something to do on a summer night is and should bethe festival’s primary goal. Why petition to deny festivalgoersthat guilty pleasure?
