T-Pain Bashes Wisconsin State Fair For Resisting His Car Drifting Event

Rapper and singer T-Pain isn’t moving forward with an event at Wisconsin State Fair Park this summer after he claimed organizers had concerns the event would attract gangs.

T-Pain announced plans for “Wiscansin State Fear” in March. The car drifting event was set to take place on Friday, June 13 at the Milwaukee Mile on the grounds of Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis.

However, after the event was announced, T-Pain said Wisconsin State Fair Park organizers reached out to him with concerns about its name and branding. He also alleged the organizers were concerned that gangs would “show up” if they had carnival rides at the event.

“Gangs are going to come if we have carnival rides? This is insane to me. I don’t understand this. I’m trying to figure this out,” T-Pain said in a video he posted to TikTok.

T-Pain began hosting “Wiscansin Fest” in Milwaukee three years ago. The festival name is a nod to the lyrics in his 2008 song “Can’t Believe It,” where he sings, “Put you in the mansion, somewhere in Wiscansin.”

This year, “Wiscansin Fest” will be held on June 14 at The Rave in Milwaukee. The day before that event, T-Pain had planned a car drifting event to take place at the Milwaukee Mile Speedway.

In his TikTok video, T-Pain said his team reached out to Wisconsin State Fair Park organizers in January. He said the drifting event was confirmed for June 13.

He said he wanted to have carnival rides, karaoke and games so that people would have more to do than just watch car drifting, a sport where people oversteer their vehicle, “to get the vehicle to drive sideways through corners,” according to Red Bull.

“I wanted to make sure that all this entertainment was there for the spectators,” T-Pain said in the video.

But T-Pain said organizers at Wisconsin State Fair Park had problems with the name of the event after it was announced to the public March 13. He said officials had concerns that the name “Wiscansin State Fear” was not “family friendly.”

He also claimed officials had concerns about the karaoke and carnival games at the event.

“They said no to the karaoke because it turns more into a concert,” T-Pain said in the video.

“But also, we can’t have carnival rides because anytime they have carnival rides, gangs show up,” he also said in the video.

T-Pain said that did not make sense since the fair was promoting carnival rides for the Wisconsin State Fair on its social media pages.

“They’re promoting rides and games,” he said in the video. “How come there’s no gangs showing up to these things that you’re promoting? Oh, is it because you’re doing it and not Black T-Pain?”

T-Pain said Wisconsin State Fair Park organizers were also concerned about providing enough police for the event, as “Greek Fest” was set to occur on the same day on another part of the property. T-Pain said he offered to pay for 100 security guards for his event.

T-Pain also claimed the officials tried to “get together on the messaging” after the event didn’t move forward. He said he believed they did so in order to not look “racist.”

In a statement, the Wisconsin State Fair Park said there were, “missteps in internal communications.”

“We take responsibility and apologize for the way this was handled,” the statement said.

“There were missteps in internal communications that are not representative of the standard at Wisconsin State Fair Park,” the statement added. “We were overly ambitious about what we could host and, unfortunately, these missteps led to this event not coming to fruition. We are taking steps to ensure a more complete event review process is in place.”

Chloe Longmire said the Wisconsin State Fair has been a tradition for her and her family for years. She lives down the street from the festival grounds.

But this year, she won’t be attending the 11-day event.

“I can’t ever go to the fair when that’s the type of response,” Longmire said. “It’s so inconsistent. It’s so hypocritical, and we know who they’re targeting.”

Vaun Mayes, a community activist in Milwaukee, said the carnival rides concern from the organizers is “ridiculous.”

“It’s not the carnival rides that draw gang members,” Mayes said. “That’s a very racist and crazy thing to say.”

In his video, T-Pain said the drifting event has been moved to Road America in Plymouth, about 60 miles from West Allis. A spokesperson for Road America didn’t respond to a reporter’s request for comment.

Listen to the WPR report

T-Pain calls out Wisconsin State Fair Park organizers over concerns for his drifting event was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.