The last-minute unauthorised ousting of fa'afafine performer Lindah LePou from the Pacific Music Awards ceremony is symptomatic of a conservative backlash overtaking the burgeoning Pasifika Festival, say performers. GLBT performers spoken to by GayNZ.com say the festival has been filtering them out over the last few years, with one very prominent artist not even having calls returned by festival organisers. "As far as Pasifika's concerned, it's a ‘family' event, as if we aren't family," said one. LePou understands that opposition to her appearance at the Pacific Music Awards had surfaced as early as the Thursday before the event. An official from the Pasifika Festival, which oversaw the opening ceremony incorporating the Music Awards, had apparently expressed a desire to cut LePou in favour of George Veikoso, aka Fiji, one of America's top-selling Pacific Island artists, concerned that LePou would offend conservatives. After being informed on the day of the event that she would present the award jointly with Fiji, LePou was removed from the stage by security minutes before she was due to walk on. "I was told the Pasifika Festival production manager had decided to override the Music Awards committee's decision to have me on," she says. Representatives from the Pacific Music Awards and the Pasifika Festival were unavailable for comment at the time of publication.