BY MELISSA RUGGIERI/AJC Music Scene
[Update 5:30 p.m. Aug. 2: Fulton County commissioners have asked the county attorney to send a letter asking Live Nation to cancel the concert.]
Despite canceling four of his upcoming dates on “The After Party” tour, R. Kelly will still perform in Atlanta.
Live Nation, which is promoting the Aug. 25 concert at Wolf Creek Amphitheater, confirmed it will take place as scheduled, but declined further comment.
According to the seating chart at www.livenation.com, about 300 seats, priced at $133, remain in the reserved section of the venue. Inventory sold for the lawn, which can hold about 4,000 of the venue's 5,200 capacity, isn't available.
Kelly recently canceled shows in New Orleans, Dallas, Los Angeles and Baton Rouge, La., following an explosive in-depth story in Buzzfeed by veteran music journalist Jim DeRogatis that alleged the singer is holding an "abusive cult" of women against their will at his homes near Chicago and in Duluth.
Kelly has denied the allegations . One of the women, former Georgia Gwinnett College student Joycelyn Savage, 21, said in interviews that she was "in a happy place with my life" and "I'm not being brainwashed or anything like that."
Oronike Odeleye, managing director of Atlanta arts organization Creative Currents Artist Collaborative, told my colleague Rodney Ho that she has been pressuring local Atlanta radio stations to stop playing the singer's music. Her #MuteRKelly petition , which also seeks the cancellation of his Wolf Creek show, had 910 signatures as of noon Aug. 2.
There is also reportedly a rift between Kelly and his booking agent, Ron Kaplan at Monterey International.
Kelly’s next concert is scheduled for Aug. 4 at the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in Mount Pleasant, Mich. According to the seating chart, the 3,200-capacity venue appears to be about 60 percent sold.
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