Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion Leader Rejects Township Board Director’s Proposal to Restrict Profanity Booming from Open-Air Arena

By Dr. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, elected member of the board of directors for The Woodlands Township

The Pavilion’s Position

At the June 25, 2026, Township Board meeting, Jeff Young, CEO of The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion (CWMP), rejected my proposal to voluntarily regulate profane and sexually explicit performances, citing free speech. Township President & CEO Monique Sharp read Mr. Young’s letter into the record, “... While we understand not all artists appeal to everyone, we do not dictate artistic expression or censor freedom of speech on our stages”

Township attorney Brett Strong spoke in favor of the Pavilion’s position. He said the Township has a contract with the Pavilion, but not one that applies to content. The Township and Pavilion share funds from an event admission (ticket) tax established in 2009. He stated the contract “doesn’t address content… The only thing it addresses is that we will share that event tax a certain way, and 90% of that goes back to them for them to promote culture arts-related activities”. The contract will end in 2030. It can be terminated or modified as the Board inclines.

My Recommendations

In response to Mr. Young’s letter, I noted that some of the lyrics booming from the Pavilion are “hate speech” targeting Christians. “If there was a band that cursed Muhammad, or cursed Islam, or cursed Jews, or cursed Blacks they would say absolutely not. But because they curse Jesus, and God and Christians, the Church and the pope, they call it art.”

I urged my fellow board members to draft a letter with “great care” asking the Pavilion to create guidelines that mirror the Federal Communications Commission’s rules that ban and restrict “obscenity, indecency and profane content.” I encouraged the CWMP nonprofit board to find a way to regulate speech during live concerts at the Pavilion in the same way the FCC regulates TV and radio broadcasts. I recommended the Township create an ad hoc committee to address the issue of profanity booming from the open-air theater because it is not going away. That committee would include two board directors, two public members, and two staff from CWMP.

Public Comment

During public comment, numerous residents expressed concern about shocking lyrics they are forced to hear inside their homes, their yards, on Market Street, the HEB parking lot, nearby parks, and residential areas adjacent to the Pavilion, when certain bands perform.

Pastor Dan Greer, founder of Community Baptist Church, testified that “Some of the bands that are coming in now with incredibly caustic, abusive, graphic and loud language.” He said, “I don’t listen to these bands, but I read some lyrics that talk about child sex abuse, necrophilia, assassinations and assaults, satanic themes and imagery.”

Betty Anderson, Republican Precinct Chair and longtime Shenandoah resident, said performances affect people living in homes just north of the Pavilion. “Some of the performances can get very loud and can be heard from our yards and sometimes from the interior of our homes,” Anderson said. “There are a number of bands that produce anti-Christian music and spout horrible lyrics that I really don’t want my children or grandchildren listening to. How do you get away from it?”

Michele Nuckolls, resident of The Woodlands and editor of Two Moms and Some Books on Substack, read the raw lyrics from Lil Jon. She was ordered to be silent by The Woodlands Township Attorney Brett Strong.

Robert Karl, from Windsor Hills, requested the Pavilion maintain family-oriented standards. Mr. Karl testified to the Board in 2023, after Ghost, a death metal band from Sweden, could be heard at HEB loudly cursing Jesus, God, the Virgin Mary, Christians and women. Ghost’s lyrics celebrate Satanic rituals and invoke the “smells of dead human sacrifices”. (This band is pictured at the beginning of this article.)

Dawn Kemp, who lives in Town Center, said she has “put up” with what she called “the degradation” of music for several years. “We hear music we didn’t ask to hear,” Dawn said. “We hear things dishonoring to God, and dishonoring to young girls.” She read radio-allowed and original lyrics to “Get Low” by Lil Jon and The East Side Boyz as an example of the difference in content between what is allowed under the FCC standard and the vulgarity that is allowed at these open-air concerts.