"Joshua Fest should drop him... I do not want my kids hearing this degenerate on stage," commented one angry attendee.

When Everyday Sunday lead vocalist Trey Pearson came out last May, he knew it would be difficult for some in his Christian fanbase to handle.

However, he never thought it would lead to his band being barred from performing at a popular music festival they’d been playing at for years.

Twitter

Back in August, Pearson celebrated the fact that when he and his band Everyday Sunday took to the stage at this year’s Joshua Fest, he would become the first openly gay artist to ever perform at a Christian music festival.

Overwhelmed & honored!! I will be the FIRST OPENLY GAY ARTIST TO EVER PLAY A MAJOR CHRISTIAN MUSIC FESTIVAL! Share: https://t.co/LBe48uRkKG — Trey Pearson (@treypearson) August 8, 2016

Social media users responded enthusiastically to the news with many praising the festival’s open-mindedness in inviting Pearson to perform.

@treypearson this is possible? So one day I can be open and still lead worship without being told awful things? You are a blessing. — Elly (@OakleySivanMota) August 8, 2016

@treypearson YES GOOD JOB! SHOW THEM WE CAN BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN AND AN ARTIST❤ — Jelle Verbeek (@jelleverbeek) August 9, 2016

@treypearson this makes my heart sing!! So happy to see people who say that they are Christians act like they are Christians!! ❤️ — Mary Thomas (@mememb) August 12, 2016

Unfortunately, not all festival attendees were excited about Joshua Fest’s decision to include an openly gay singer in their lineup.

“Mr. Pearson is using a Christian music festival to further his own personal agenda,” commented one disgruntled fan on a recent interview with the singer.

“Sure, he’s not the only sinner to perform,” they continued, “but do you see other artists tweeting, ‘Yay! I’m an adulterer and I get to lead worship at a major Christian music festival!’?”

“Now his performance has become about his sexual deviancy and not about Jesus. Joshua Fest should drop him… I do not want my kids hearing this degenerate on stage,” the comment concluded. “No thanks. We’ll stay home this year. Ticket refund?”

This negative attitude quickly carried over from the fans to the crew working the event.

According to the Joshua Fest organizers, 11 members of the production team approached them days before the Labor Day festival to say that they would drop out if Pearson performed.

“The information about the stage crew came from our production manager,” Joshua Fest owner Aaron Diello told Billboard.

“There was a team of about 14, and he said that about 11 were going to back out. He was trying to get them to change their minds, but it really put our back against the wall. This was just under two weeks out from the event.”

“All of our staff are volunteers and none of us are paid,” he added. “And the fact that this team works the event for cost really put us in a bind to find a knowledgeable team that was available, let alone affordable. The event is Labor Day weekend, so you can imagine how hard it would have been to find a team that was experienced and available.”

Eventually, Diello decided to give in to the dissenters and push Pearson and his band off the ticket, even though Everyday Sunday had performed at the festival almost every year for the past decade.

“I was hurt,” he admitted. “I felt like I was powerless in the situation—like I was just punched in the gut. I was forced to let down a friend, someone that I really wanted to just love and support, the way Jesus tells us to. I was being denied that opportunity, at my own festival. It was a horrible situation.”

Though he was upset by the festival’s decision to boot him, Pearson maintained a certain level of perspective when responding to the news in the press.

“The owners are awesome and their hearts are awesome and that’s why they were inviting me in the first place,” he said. “There was no way they would have been able to have the festival. If they keep me, I’m not going to perform anyway, because the festival is not even going to happen, and the festival owners are going to lose probably hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

A few days before the festival, however, Pearson received a surprise call from Five Iron Frenzy, a famous ska-punk band that would be closing out the event.

“They were like, ‘Hey, what would you think about coming up and singing our last song with us?,'” he remembered.

“They were a band that I went to tons of their concerts in high school and looked up to, and so to have them ask me to do that was amazing,” he continued. “They checked with the owners first, and we all decided…[that] it [was] a way that I [could] go up there and be a part of the festival.”

“It turned out to be a really beautiful thing,” he concluded. “Of course I wish I could have done my own set, but in some ways this almost felt more powerful, because it was this band that I looked up to growing up that a lot of the fans looked up to, and all these guys from the other bands, too, standing with me in love.”

Though Diello is hoping that Joshua Fest 2017 will be more inclusive and less contentious, he’s happy with the way things turned out.

“I believe that everything happened the way it was supposed to happen,” he said. “Maybe [it wasn’t] the way Trey and myself foresaw or wanted it to pan out, but if it didn’t happen the way it did, then I think the result would have been different, maybe even manufactured or forced.”

“We really got to see something raw and unique happen to the core of people’s souls,” he reflected. “I think there’s a lot of annihilated kids out there that need the politics and theological debates of the church shelved. Something bigger than us and our issues happened at that show.”

h/t: Billboard