After receiving numerous threats on account of using the word ‘Beef’ in the name of an upcoming food festival in the city, the organisers have called off.
The event, originally titled “Kolkata Beef Festival”, was renamed to “Kolkata Beep Festival” after the organisers said they received multiple threat messages because of having “beef” in the title of festival name.
“We are afraid, because everything has been blown out of proportion somehow. Things are not in our control anymore. For all of these reasons, the Kolkata Beep* Festival stands cancelled,” The Accidental Note, a Kolkata-based event management company, said.
The “Kolkata Beep Festival” was earlier scheduled to take place at a south Kolkata restaurant on June 23. The venue was later moved to a hotel.
“Even though we planned for this to happen after the elections, to avoid political tension, we couldn’t avoid it. If it was just political tension, and if we were sure that we can still provide a safe conflict free food festival that allows everyone attending to enjoy, we would’ve gone ahead with it,” the organisers were quoted as saying by NDTV.
The organisers were planning to reach out to the police to file a complaint. But one of them received nearly 300 calls, “a lot of them to show support, but a lot of them were direct threats”, one of their Facebook posts read.
Organisers change name of festival in Kolkata from ‘beef’ to ‘beep’ after threats
