A festival in France dedicated to American music and culture (I know, I was surprised too) has been called off, after organizers received threats “mentioning Al Qaeda.”

A Paris festival celebrating US music and culture has been called off following a series of anti-American threats, organisers said on Sunday.

Called “Three Days in America”, the festival featuring country and gospel concerts, line-dancing, sales of US paraphernalia and a tribute to Elvis Presley was to take place from May 26 to 28 in Saint Cloud, southwest of Paris.

Organisers issued a statement saying they were forced to postpone the event following “persistent pressure and threats of an anti-American nature”.

“At first we thought it was a joke when we received a letter with a mixture of threats, mentioning Al-Qaeda and full of spelling mistakes,” said Chantal Tenot, the festival’s press officer. But after several threatening phone calls the organisers decided Friday to file a police complaint and call off the event.

These folks deserve a lot of credit for organizing such a festival in the first place, and it would be sadly ironic if the Eurojihadis forced them to … uh … surrender.