Pharrell Williams cancelled the Something In The Water festival in Virginia Beach, after his cousin was killed in an officer-involved shooting.
In a letter to the Virginia Beach City Manager Patrick Duhaney Pharrell outlined his reasons.
“I love my city, but for far too long it has been run by — and with toxic energy,” he wrote. “The toxic energy that changed the narrative several times around the homicide of my cousin, [Donovon] Lynch, a citizen of Virginia, is the same toxic energy that changed the narrative around the mass murder and senseless loss of life at Building Number 2. I wish the same energy I’ve felt from Virginia Beach leadership upon losing the festival would have been similarly channeled following the loss of my relative’s life.”
Pharrell’s letter was in response to Duhaney in which he expressed his disappointment in Pharrell’s decision to discontinue the festival.
Lynch was fatally wounded by a Virginia Beach police officer claiming he was wielding a handgun, he died after he was shot in the torso and thigh.
He was 25.