Fans Express Outrage Over 12th Planet on Tomorrowland Lineup Following Sexual Assault Allegations

Tomorrowland Belgium has shared its massive 2023 lineup and some EDM fans weren’t happy when they saw 12th Planet on the poster.

The coveted festival has announced its 2023 theme, Adscendo, complete with a fantasy adventure novel to tell its origin story. Along with the theme, Tomorrowland Belgium has also announced its colossal lineup spanning all genres of electronic music, including trance, house, dubstep, and much more.

Among those names–in fact, the second name on the lineup–is dubstep DJ 12th Planet. Although the artist has been steadily securing major festival bookings, fans haven’t forgotten the sexual assault allegations made against the DJ in late 2021. 

On December 2, 2021, a photographer that goes by Grim made a post on social media about three separate sexual assault incidents involving three different DJs: 12th Planet, Gammer, and Trampa. Although he initially went silent across social channels and got pulled from at least one lineup, roughly two months later, 12th Planet issued a statement denying the rape allegations Grim made against him. Not long after, he started playing festivals again.

Although 12th Planet played major festivals throughout the summer of 2022, such as EDC Las Vegas and Electric Forest, some fans continued to express their outrage with these decisions. In many cases, fans specifically called for the festival to remove the DJ from their lineups, although not successful. 

In December of 2022, the allegations against 12th Planet resurfaced when an anonymous Twitter user posted an image of what appeared to be a rape charge against John Dadzie aka 12th Planet from 2007 that was dismissed by the court. 

Some fans questioned the authenticity of the document and other noted a dismissed charge holds no weight. Still, the discourse about the DJ picked up so much that his name was removed from the Dubplate Special Tour with Rusko. Now, 12th Planet’s name on the Tomorrowland 2023 lineup caused an outcry from dance music fans.

One Twitter user said, “okay but nobodies gonna talk ab how 12th Planet is the 2ND NAME ON THE LINEUP” and another said “tomorrowland booking 12th planet is exactly why women will never make progress against sexual predators and the system. im pissed.”

Another user said, “Why is 12th planet being booked still but gammer doesn’t get booked anymore after the allegations that came out to be true about BOTH of them? We pushed trampa out of the scene but not 12th planet? lol this guy is funny for trying to stay around. Hopefully his crowds get smaller” and continued the thread with, “This is about Tomorrowland booking 12th planet lol.” 

Ashley

I’ve been a part of the dance music scene for nearly a decade and with Exron for more than half of that time. My first event was Diplo’s Mad Decent but these days you’ll find me at Club Space or the Brooklyn Mirage. Some of my top artists are G Jones, Tipper, Of The Trees, and CharlestheFirst. My favorite genres are techno, experimental bass, and ambient but I’ll get down to anything with a beat!

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