Aaron J. Sams of U2Songs is reporting that U2 were originally set to perform in Raleigh, North Carolina as part of The Joshua Tree 30th anniversary tour on June 16, 2017. When the tour was actually announced though, Raleigh was left out. That date went unannounced for several weeks, but on January 30, 2017, it was announced that U2 would be playing Louisville, KY, and that date was set for June 16, 2017.
In an article with BizJournals.com, North Carolina State University athletics director Debbie Yow explains that the so called “Bathroom Law” in North Carolina has had an impact on their budget:
“It has already hurt us,” she says. “We had a concert lined up that would have been here in June. And they passed on us and went to Louisville. We were in negotiations with them and as part of the negotiations, they finally got around to talking about HB2 and decided they didn’t want to bite this off.”
What is the only concert showing up on the schedule thus far for Louisville? U2.
Yow did not confirm that the concert was U2, however “Biz has confirmed it was U2.”
House Bill 2 has led to other big name artists like Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen to cancel concerts.
The bill requires that transgender people in government buildings use bathrooms that match the sex on their birth certificate, and prevents local governments from taking steps to ban discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in employment and public accommodations.
