Kolkata beef festival called off after organiser receives over 300 threat calls

Kolkata: The organiser of the Kolkata Beef Festival, which was scheduled to be held this month, has cancelled the event after receiving over 300 threat calls and hate messages.

The event, originally titled "Kolkata Beef Festival", was renamed "Kolkata Beep Festival" after the organisers allegedly received multiple threats because of the word "beef" in the title. The festival was likely to take place on June 23 at a restaurant in south Kolkata, media reports stated.

The Accidental Note, a Kolkata-based event management company, shared a message on Facebook claiming, "Yesterday, Arjun received 300+ calls, a lot of them to show support, but a lot of them were direct threats... Most importantly, we cannot ensure the safety of all of you amazing people who were planning to attend and our team. We are afraid because everything has been blown out of proportion somehow. Things are not in our control anymore. For all of these reasons, the Kolkata Beep* Festival stands cancelled."

"Even though we planned for this to happen after the elections, to avoid political tension, we couldn't avoid it. If it was just political tension, and if we were sure that we can still provide a safe conflict free food festival that allows everyone attending to enjoy, we would've gone ahead with it," the organisers said in the post.