EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Andrew Martinez shared his concerns about a festival announced at a South-Central El Paso venue allegedly holding neo-Nazi ties through an Instagram reel. This quickly caught the attention of many.

“It goes beyond just making music. It is practiced. And I think congregating in these spaces here in El Paso presents like a real legitimate danger to the community,” Martinez told KTSM.

The event in question is called Autumn Equinox Celebration, and Ancient Rites organize it Through Native Pride (A.R.T.N.P), an organization based in Los Angeles.

A quick Google search of this organization shows several independent articles saying the group is involved with fascist ideologies.

Finding the flier or any information in regard to this event that was announced for Sept. 22 and 23 was a task on its own.

A Google search did not reveal what this event is or where it will be held.

Through a Facebook search of the festival’s name, the photo of a flier popped up from someone who’d shared it, but not directly from the organizers’ page.

Martinez explained having the information hidden but still accessible to those “in the known” allows harmful messages to be spread and is used as a tactic.

“We’ve seen that before. We’ve seen far-right ideologies come into the community, and they devastated it,” Martinez said, alluding to the 2019 Walmart massacre where 23 El Pasoans were killed.

The flier says the event is to be held at The Dungeon, an underground venue in South-Central El Paso located at 110 Poplar.

Another local musician and Martinez’s friend Nicolas Uribe said he and other local musicians have performed at this venue before.

“Through the events of 2019, and with all the things going on, on the border, a lot of eyes are focused on us right now. So, it’s kind of become a hotspot for ideas as it’s growing, even if not a lot of people realize it yet,” Uribe said.

Uribe and Martinez both reached out to the operator of the venue, asking questions about the event.

Martinez said he suspected the venue was compliant with the alleged neo-Nazi ties of this festival.

KTSM was able to get in touch with owner Christian. He said the event was supposed to take place at his venue, but the venue has now shut down.

“I know some of the guys came from California, and they approached me and asked me if we could have their event here. And I said, ‘Yeah, just like anybody else,'” he recalled.

Christian said since his venue has closed down, the event will not occur there, but they didn’t update their flier.

“I don’t believe in censoring art or music. So, I allow any, like it doesn’t affect me. But as I said, I never saw any signs of white supremacy or anything that would show,” he said regarding the festival.

Martinez believes the event has now switched to another El Paso venue and will still occur.

“I don’t feel safe with this happening. I don’t know what to do, but I want to do something to ensure there’s no safe space for far-right extremist ideologies in El Paso,” he said.

KTSM has contacted the organizers and will follow up with this story once we are able to speak with them.