Most importantly, the event was to take place on the Nottoway Plantation, a former slave plantation, which rankled many of DiFranco's fans and those who became aware of the Righteous Retreat Song Camp and took to her now deleted Facebook event to complain.

In the wake of the clamor and new information, DiFranco issued a lengthy statement on her website, canceling the event: "when i agreed to do a retreat (with a promoter who has organized such things before with other artists and who approached me about being the next curator/host/teacher), i did not know the exact location it was to be held. i knew only that it would be 'not too far outside of new orleans' so that i could potentially come home to my own bed each night. and i knew that one of the days of the retreat was slated as a field trip wherein everyone would come to new orleans together.