Music Festival Goes Vegetarian For Morrissey

A word of advice to music promoters: If you want singer Morrissey to perform at your festival, you better not sell foods with meat in them. That is what Belgian music festival Lokerse Feesten will be doing as part of a condition for the former Smiths frontman to play there on August 4, The Guardian reported.

On the day of Morrissey’s performance, the festival organizers will impose a ban on meat dishes, such as horse-meat sausages and snails, and offer vegetarian meals instead. Food vendors outside of the festival grounds are not affected by the meat ban.

The festival organizers had long wanted Morrissey to perform at their event. "Many months we worked on it, for weeks we waited for an answer, many nights were spent sleepless," they told The Guardian. When Morrissey agreed with that one condition, those in charge said it was “a welcome catering challenge.”

Morrissey has been a long-time vegetarian and an animal rights supporter (the title of the Smiths’ 1985 album is called “Meat is Murder”). In 2009, he walked off of the stage during a performance at Coachella when he smelled the aroma of barbecue. “I can smell burning flesh ... and I hope to God it's human," said the singer at the time.

Selected Readings: The Guardian, PETA Web site

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