Fear over Arizona’s newly signed immigration enforcement law has forced a Tucson radio station to postpone a June 6 concert featuring some of the biggest names in regional Mexican music, according to the station.
KCMT La Caliente (102.1 FM) had teased its June 6 “Tusa 2010” concert on-air but decided not to put the tickets on sale and to postpone the show until the fall, general sales manager Tara Hungate tells Billboard.
The concert was to have featured La Arrolladora Banda el Limon, Banda MS, K-Paz de la Sierra and Julion Alvarez, among others.
“We didn’t want to take the risk of having it not work out for our clients,” says Hungate. “Would we able to sell tickets between now and the beginning of June? I don’t know…I don’t think it’s because people have left [Arizona] and I don’t think it’s in protest. I think people are scared. Whether they’re legal or not, they don’t want to jeopardize their paperwork. The tendency is, ‘I am not going to go out because I don’t want to have one beer and get stopped.'”
The station is trying to bring the groups back for its annual anniversary concert in September or October, Hungate says.
Whether fears over the new law will settle by then is an open question, considering it doesn’t take effect until at least the end of July, or 90 days after the state’s legislative session ends.
