The family of go-go pioneer Chuck Brown announced Thursday that it removed support for a yearly birthday celebration held in his honor, citing concerns that it was marginalized in the planning process.
“We no longer support the Chuck Brown Day event and do not want it to continue unless a new director and project leadership is in place to ensure that our duty to protect the integrity of Chuck Brown’s legacy is respected,” the family wrote in a statement posted on the Chuck Brown Band’s social media pages.
The 12th annual Chuck Brown Day concert, organized by the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation and D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), is scheduled to take place at Fort Dupont Park on Saturday, what would have been his 90th birthday.
The event typically features performances from a half-dozen go-go artists and draws large crowds. This year, the event is meant to commemorate the D.C.-born genre’s 50th anniversary.
Brown’s family told DPR in February that it was rescinding support for the event, according to Brown’s son, Nekos Brown. This year is the first since the concert’s inception that the Chuck Brown Band, which includes two of his children, is not headlining the festival.
Three years ago, the concert moved from Chuck Brown Memorial Park to Fort Dupont Park to accommodate larger crowds and safety concerns.
“We used to plan Chuck Brown Day top to bottom, hand in hand, when it was at my father’s park,” Nekos said. “Since it hasn’t been there, a lot of things have fell by the wayside on their part, and they haven’t taken things seriously as far as how we go about protecting my father’s brand and legacy.”
The social media posts announcing the family’s removal of support for the event were met with overwhelming praise from fans and community members.
Brown, a guitarist and bandleader known as the “Godfather of Go-Go,” died in 2012. In 2014, the city dedicated a park in Northeast’s Langdon neighborhood in his honor, underscoring his role in founding one of the city’s richest cultural exports. The park includes a memorial wall honoring Brown’s life and achievements and an abstract sculpture that represents the “call and response” associated with go-go music.
The family is not paid for Chuck Brown Day programming, Nekos said.
“It’s not that we don’t want to see Chuck Brown Day happen, but we definitely can’t have it without our involvement,” he said.
The mayor’s office declined to comment. A spokesperson for DPR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
DJ Kool, who was made the official DJ at the third Chuck Brown Day, has played the festival every year since. He plans to keep his performance Saturday, though he said he is unsure how he’ll proceed for future events and anticipates decreased attendance this weekend.
“We love our go-go here,” he said. “But at the same time, we love Chuck even more. We love go-go because of Chuck.”
The longtime go-go and hip-hop performer started DJing the annual event because of a promise he made when he spoke at Brown’s memorial service in 2012 to “uphold his musical legacy.”
“He was like father to all of us,” he said. “That’s why people are taking this the way that they’re taking it.”
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