A Friday night concert that took place at the venue referred to as the Garden Center located on 408 Martin Luther King Dr., was shut down by the Starkville Police Department, and three Mississippi State University students were issued citations for soliciting without a permit.
Chris Cajoleas, Taylor Gair and Nathan Herring were all written citations. Gair and Herring live at the Garden Center and Cajoleas was the show’s promoter.
According to David Lindley, SPD chief of police, all proceeds from ticket sales were confiscated from the those in charge, but he would not comment on the amount.
The concert started at about 9 p.m. and went on until about 10:15 p.m. when SPD arrived. At that time, there over 150 wristbands had been sold. When the police entered the house and backyard, they quickly halted the band and then proceeded to clear everyone out, which took nearly 45 minutes.
The show had been scheduled for over two months and had been advertised for in multiple local publications and online.
“The advertising was one of the big problems,” Lindley said. “You simply can not operate a business in the city of Starkville without the right paperwork. These guys didn’t have it.”
He also said there were multiple fire code violations that could have caused serious problems, but no citations were issued and, according to Gair, no drug or alcohol citations were issued either.
As soon as the show was officially shut down, Cajoleas got in touch with State Theatre booking manager Miles Byrd and got the go-ahead from him to bring the two bands, Colour Revolt and The Weeks, to State Theatre’s upstairs room.
No cover was charged and, even after the change of venue, over 300 people ended up coming, Byrd said.
“Within like three minutes of talking to Chris, people started walking in asking me if Colour Revolt was playing here,” he said. “It all happened so fast.”
Despite no cover being charged, supporters still donated nearly $300.
Grant Beatty, a student and witness at both the Garden Center and State Theatre, said he realizes the police were doing their job, but that the situation still does not sit well with him.
“With the magnitude of the event, of course they should have covered all their bases,” he said. “But despite that … it just seems wrong. Really wrong.”
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Concert on MLK Drive shut down Friday
MICAH GREEN
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October 17, 2011
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