Mexican Government Ignored A Severed Cow’s Head Left On City Steps In Protest Of Marilyn Manson Performance

Marilyn Manson shouldn’t be at the top list of hard rock artists that would be a great fit for an annual state fair filled with family and children, but here we are.

Ricardo Gallardo Cardona – Mexican state San Luis Potosi’s governor – booked Marilyn Manson for a performance at the state’s annual state fair on August 10th, which received notable backlash from religious and conservative parts of their population.

Gallardo Cardona told Billboard that the reason he wanted Manson to perform was in “defense of freedom of expression,” and that he wanted to help change the “conservative mindsets” of some of the Mexican population. Gallardo Cardona believes that Mexico is facing a “cultural lag.” He then goes on to ask, “But if [Marilyn Manson has] already performed in Rome, the cradle of Catholicism, why couldn’t he perform in San Luis Potosi? This isn’t about religion; it’s about cultural justice, about creating unity, and we must do it through music.”

However, it seemed to cause more division than unity when a severed cow’s head was left on the Metropolitan Cathedral just a few hours before Marilyn Manson was due to perform in protest of his appearance at the state festival. Another, rather conservative, association collected around 6,000 signatures from people who did not want the event to continue.

To Gallardo Cardona though, he believed that “there will always be opposing voices, and Marilyn Manson has faced them not just in Mexico but it other parts of the world.” So, booking Manson for a family’s festival seemed like the best way to create unity.

There are several arguments as to why people protest Marilyn Manson, and one of them is because of his appearance and his performances, but the second is because of the 16 survivors who have come forward with allegations of abuse against Manson. One of the most notable allegations had been made by his former fiancée Evan Rachel Wood in 2018, whom Manson once told SPIN magazine that he had “fantasies every day about smashing her skull in with a sledgehammer.” Another one of Manson’s ex-fiancées, Rose McGowan, posted a Tweet at the time, stating, “I stand with Evan Rachel Wood and other brave women who have come forward.”

Early this year, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office opted not to bring sexual abuse charges against Marilyn Manson.

Several protests have already occurred in light of Marilyn Manson‘s tour, One Assassination Under God Tour, and a city councilwoman in the UK successfully petitioned the cancellation of Manson‘s stop in Brighton, England, which Manson silently pulled out of.

You can find all Marilyn Manson tour dates here.