SOLANA BEACH, Calif. (KGTV) — A popular drag show event was canceled due to an online threat.
The 4th annual Drag Takeover Disney Edition was scheduled for March 28 at the Belly Up in Solana Beach. 350 tickets were sold for the event.
"Because of the climate that we're living in, we have to take every threat so serious," Roxanne Deatherage said.
The North County LGBTQ Resource Center puts on the event.
The show raises money for the center's Pride By The Beach festival in June.
"Each queen usually does two acts, and we had eight queens, and so it's just an hour and a half of non-stop fun," Deatherage said.
Deatherage is the Director of Pride By The Beach. She said three hours before the show, she received a call from the Belly Up venue about a now-deleted Youtube video of someone making threats towards an individual who planned on attending the event.
"They were going to show up, and they had already planted something there [at the venue]," Deatherage said.
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department investigated the incident.
Deputies did not find anything.
The department said the threat was not towards any group, the event, or the venue.
Still, Deatherage said they decided to cancel Drag Takeover out of an abundance of caution, especially given the recent backlash towards drag and the LGBTQ community.
"I just think that the way our country is being and what's going around us, especially in our own neighborhoods right now, that it's just serious no matter what they say, and so our safety was number one priority," Deatherage said.
The center plans to hold the event at a later date.
Deatherage said the show usually raises around $10,000 for Pride By The Beach and is essential to making the event free for everyone.
"We want this event on June 3rd to show that we are not going to stop loving our community and making safe places no matter what's going on in the world," Deatherage said.
The sheriff's department said the investigation has been turned over to the FBI.
