Paul McCartney: Still a good guy. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Last night, Bloombars, a non-profit arts organization in Columbia Heights, posted a Facebook statement accusing Paul McCartney of pulling the plug on a performance by a children’s orchestra scheduled to happen at his Nationals Park concert Friday.

As you may have heard, Ella, our youngest Artist in Bloom resident, was to perform with Sir Paul McCartney tomorrow night at Nationals Stadium, leading the Guitars Not Guns Youth Orchestra. Sadly, McCartney’s camp pulled the plug at the 11th hour with the mysterious reason: “security concerns.” How seven youth under age 14, armed with guitars, pose a security risk is beyond our imagination. We’re heartbroken for them. They put in hours of rehearsal time, their parents even had to pay for tix, and it wasn’t cheap. We try hard to shield artists from the shadiness of the entertainment industry, grounding them in grassroots, but sadly, in this case, we failed. What a lesson learned the hard way…and who better to teach it? So, what to do? Well, knowing the power of Twitter, we’ve started tweeting @PaulMcCartney directly with the hash ‪#‎askpaulwhy‬. If you share a smidgeon of our disappointment, retweet us @BloomBars. Who knows, maybe he’ll hear hear us. Stranger things have happened.

This apparent snub of the Guitars Not Guns “Set Me Free Youth Ensemble,” of course, created outrage on social media. It even led In the Capital to call Macca “heartless.” But the way John Chambers of Bloombars has been relaying the story is apparently not accurate.

According to Gregg Hammond, president of the Washington, D.C. chapter of Guitars Not Guns, the children were never confirmed to perform with Sir Paul.

While a blog post about the McCartney concert on Bloombars’ website written by Hammond seems to contradict this, Hammond said his words were edited.

Indeed, an email from Hammond forwarded by Chambers said McCartney’s manager, publicist and charity coordinator “declined” the group’s performance over security concerns, but did offer a donation.

Chambers said this is not how Hammond presented the opportunity to Bloombars’ resident performer Ella and her mother, adding they feel “wholly duped.”

In any case, don’t blame Paul.