Shaky Knees updates policy to prohibit guns, but can it be enforced?

May 4th, 2023

The crowd settles in and awaits a performance by the rock band Incubus at the annual Shaky Knees Music Festival on Friday, May 3, 2019, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Ron Harris)

Shaky Knees, the 3-day music festival scheduled to take place in Atlanta’s Central Park this weekend, recently updated its policy to reflect that weapons of any kind would be prohibited.

Because of Georgia law, that rule won’t be entirely enforceable legally.

A 2019 Georgia Supreme Court ruling on Georgia’s Safe Carry Protection Act prevents most events like Shaky Knees from banning guns on public or state-owned land.

According to Timothy Lytton, a law professor at Georgia State University, it all boils down to the type of lease an entity has on public land.

The court ruled that because the Atlanta Botanical Garden has a long-term lease at Piedmont Park that allows them to make improvements, it can also ban weapons on the premises. Most weekend events in public parks have short-term leases that would not allow for the banning of firearms.

“I’m going to go ahead and guess that Shaky Knees does not have a long-term lease [at Central Park] that would allow them to ban guns,” said Lytton. “They can issue a policy — it just isn’t enforceable. The question is, is anyone going to challenge them?”

Last year, a gun rights activist named Phillip Evans, the same person who lost to the Atlanta Botanical Garden at the Georgia Supreme Court, threatened to take legal action if Music Midtown didn’t lift its policy prohibiting firearms.

A few months later, Music Midtown was canceled abruptly, citing circumstances beyond its control. It was widely believed that the staple Atlanta music festival would not go on because there would be no way to enforce a weapons ban.

In March, Sweetwater 420 Fest announced it would relocate from Centennial Olympic Park to the Sweetwater Brewery. The festival said that many factors went into the decision, with “the most important being the safety of our festival goers.” Sweetwater Brewery is privately owned and, therefore, can enforce a ban on firearms.

But while other major Atlanta music festivals have canceled or relocated in the past year, Shaky Knees has sold out tickets to all three days and only recently stated clearly that it would not allow weapons.

Emails and social media comments to the festival from concert-goers asking for details on the weapons policy have gone unanswered.

Lytton said there’s also potential for the festival to face legal action if any attendees are injured by weapons.

“If there were to be a shooting and a concert-goer is injured, they could argue the event failed to exercise reasonable care,” he said. “The reasonable care wouldn’t necessarily be the banning of weapons outside the scope of the law, but it might include things like letting people know.”

WABE reached out to C3 Presents, the production company for the festival, for clarification on how it plans to enforce the weapons ban but hasn’t heard back.