Pharrell Williams cancels Something in the Water 2025
Pharrell Williams has cancelled the 2025 edition of his US festival Something in the Water as “it just isn’t ready yet”.
The fourth edition was due to take place on 12–13 October at Virginia Beach Oceanfront in Williams’ home city.
In a post on social media, the singer-songwriter-producer wrote: “Virginia doesn’t deserve better, Virginia deserves THE BEST. So Something in the Water has to match that. It just isn’t ready yet. That’s why we as a team have decided we must postpone this year’s Something in the Water festival that was due to take place in October.
“This is not a Pharrell festival, this is the state of Virginia’s festival so it has to be the best,” he continues. “Virginia made me, and I want to honour it with as much love as it’s shown me my entire life. I am so grateful to our amazing sponsors and the city for their continued support and trust in us to get this right.”
“Virginia made me, and I want to honour it with as much love as it’s shown me my entire life”
The next edition of the festival is slated to take place in April 2025, with Williams adding “This has to be EPIC, and trust me, after this long wait, it will be.”
News of the cancellation arrived hours after a tier of exclusive tickets was released to Virginia residents, some of which were purchased in person. A line-up for Something in the Water 2024 had not been revealed.
Ticketholders will be refunded and will have first access to purchase tickets for the next edition, according to organisers.
Of the previous three iterations of Something in the Water, one had an entire day cancelled due to weather while another was staged in Washington, D.C. over Williams’ issues with Virginia Beach after his cousin was killed by a local officer.
In the past, the festival has featured performances from Clipse, Justin Timberlake, Post Malone, Usher, Wu-Tang Clan and many more.
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Study: Death metal inspires joy not violence
A study carried out by the music lab at Macquarie University, Sydney, has found that death metal music does not inspire violence or desensitise listeners to violent imagery.
The study, entitled ‘Implicit violent imagery processing among fans and non-fans of music with violent themes’, appears in the Royal Society journal Open Science.
“Death metal fans are nice people,” says professor Bill Thompson from Macquarie University. “They’re not going to go out and hurt someone.”
The study finds that music with violent lyrics does not appear to desensitise listeners, unlike evidence suggesting the detrimental effects of violent video games on players.
Psychological experiments probed listeners’ subconscious responses to death metal and pop songs. 32 death metal fans and 48 non-fans listened to songs whilst being shown one violent images and one innocuous image.
Researchers used death metal band Bloodbath’s cannibalism-themed song, ‘Eaten’, for the psychological testing, as well as ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams, deemed to be the metal tune’s polar opposite.
The aim was to measure how much participants’ brains noticed violent scenes, and to compare how their sensitivity was affected by the musical accompaniment. The basis of the testing drew on the fact that most people, when faced with one violent and one neutral image, will see the violent image more, as it poses a threat.
“To listen to this music and to transform it into an empowering, beautiful experience – that’s an amazing thing”
“If fans of violent music were desensitised to violence, then they wouldn’t show this same bias,” explains professor Thompson. “But the fans showed the very same bias towards processing these violent images as those who were not fans of this music.”
“The dominant emotional response to this music is joy and empowerment,” adds Thompson. “And I think that to listen to this music and to transform it into an empowering, beautiful experience – that’s an amazing thing.”
However, the professor notes that violence in the media continues to be a “socially significant issue.”
Nick Holmes, lead singer of Bloodbath, told BBC news that the study proves the band’s lyrics are “harmless fun”, adding that their songs are “basically an aural version of an 80s horror film.”
“The majority of death metal fans are intelligent, thoughtful people who just have a passion for the music,” says the band’s lead singer Nick Holmes.
This latest study is part of a decades-long investigation by professor Thompson and his colleagues into the emotional effects of music. Thompson hopes the findings will be a reassurance to “parents or religious groups” concerned about violent music.
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Grande, Bieber, Coldplay for LN Manchester benefit
Ariana Grande will return to Manchester this Sunday (4 June), headlining a star-studded benefit in aid of the families of the victims of last Monday’s bombing.
One Love Manchester, underwritten by Live Nation and produced by Festival Republic in association with SJM Concerts, will take place at the Emirates Old Trafford Cricket Ground (50,000-cap.) and feature performances by Grande, Justin Bieber, Coldplay, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Pharrell Williams, Usher, Take That and 1D’s Niall Horan.
Tickets will go on sale through Ticketmaster at 10am on Thursday 1 June, while those who attended Grande’s tragic show at Manchester Arena on 22 May can register to attend for free.
All net proceeds for the show, which will be broadcast on BBC TV and radio and Capital radio, will be donated to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund.
“We will not quit or operate in fear. We won’t let this divide us”
In an open letter to fans, Grande (pictured) – who postponed her Dangerous Woman tour in the wake of the Manchester Arena attack – says: “My heart, prayers and condolences are with the victims of the Manchester Attack and their loved ones. There is nothing I or anyone can do to take away the pain you are feeling or to make this better. However, I extend my hand and heart and everything I possibly can give to you and yours, should you want or need my help in any way.
“We will not quit or operate in fear. We won’t let this divide us. We won’t let hate win… Our response to this violence must be to come closer together, to help each other, to love more, to sing louder and to live more kindly and generously than we did before.
“Music is meant to heal us, to bring us together, to make us happy. So that is what it will continue to do for us. We will continue to honour the ones we lost, their loved ones, my fans and all affected by this tragedy. They will be on my mind and in my heart every day, and I will think of them with everything I do for the rest of my life.”
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