TEXCOCO, Mexico — The two-day Hell and Heaven Metal Fest that had been scheduled to take place March 15 and 16 at the fairgrounds in this Mexico City suburb has been canceled. State officials cited public safety as the reason for pulling the plug, but town officials and concert organizers, including town spokesman Francisco Vazquez, speculated that politics and economics might have played a role.
As one concert organizer, Javier Castaneda, vowed in the days leading up to the canceled event that the show would somehow go on as planned, Mexico state and federal authorities sent 300 riot officers to the site to enforce the state’s decree.
Although a statement released by the state government cited concerns over fire safety, fireworks safety and the lack of an evacuation plan, Vazquez noted that while town officials — most of whom are affiliated with the minority Citizens Movement Party — were in favor of the event, state officials, most with a PRI affiliation, were opposed.
Juan Carlos Guerrero, the spokesman for the concert organizers, raised the question of whether business or other conflicts were at work, noting that other music festivals drawing even bigger crowds than the Metal Fest were allowed to proceed as planned.
