Black Entertainment
Television and Paramount’s Kings Dominion theme park in Virginia have pulled
the plug on their annual College Hip-Hop Fest.
According to a
press release, the festival was yanked due to poor attendance. The annual event
drew students from nearby black colleges in the area, as well as others up and
down the east coast.
"We are disappointed
but unfortunately, the number of students participating has declined to the
point where it doesn’t make sense for us to host it," said Richard A. Zimmerman,
executive vice president and general manager of Kings Dominion in a statement.
The park refused
to divulge their actual attendance numbers and the statement made no reference
to the shootings that took place after the daylong festival in the past two
years.
Last year, two
men were shot in the theme park’s parking lot as thousands of people were
leaving.
In an attempt to keep trouble out, organizers
of the event made it more difficult for people other than students to attend
the festival, requiring students to present a valid college ID to purchase tickets.
Additionally, over
100 deputies were assigned to work Kings Dominion’s parking lots and police
stepped up their presence by putting almost four times the regular amount of
officers on the streets of nearby Richmond.
"The relationship
with our sister Viacom company Paramount’s Kings Dominion has been a mutually
successful one, and we’re grateful for all of the hard work and dedication shown
over the years," BET President Debra Lee said in a statement.
During the seven-year
annual event, Kings Dominion and BET helped raise over $250,000 for black colleges,
as well as $50,000 for BET’s campaign to raise awareness about HIV in
the black community.
