Concert planned at Gallatin City Cemetery met with controversy, pushback
GALLATIN, Tenn. (WKRN) – There’s controversy surrounding Decoration Day at Gallatin City Cemetery.
Organizers said they were hoping to bring some cheer around the event with a bluegrass concert, but some community members pushed back.
“We’re used to this place and it didn’t seem like a big deal, but a lot of people take it very seriously, so we had to move it,” said Jeff Hentschel, a spokesperson for Gallatin City Cemetery.
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Decoration Day is about cleaning graves for loved ones at the town cemetery.
“We wanted to show the needs of the cemetery – broken down benches, grave stones falling over – there are a lot of issues,” Hentschel said.
City leaders thought a bluegrass festival would draw a crowd.
“Having bluegrass playing Grateful Dead songs in the cemetery, it just seemed to all fit perfectly,” Hentschel said.
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Gallatin Mayor Paige Brown echoed Hentschel’s remarks.
“It sounded great. It was a great way to bring people to the cemetery; we need more people to understand how valuable this cemetery is,” Brown said.
However, some people pushed back at the idea online.
“Different people have different sensitivities around death and burials and where their relatives are buried, so there was an uproar on social media about it,” Brown said.
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Decoration Day will be held Sunday, May 26, but after the event, the blue grass concert will instead happen in Town Square.
“Ironically, after we moved the location, there was far more resistance to us having moved it than there was in the first place, but we decided to stick with it,” Brown said.
“I think I just have a feeling that this little bit of controversy is going to elevate exposure to this event,” Hentschel added.
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