Bands and artists cancelling tours is nothing new. For one reason or another it happens. It’s always a disappointment to the fans and devastating to the promoter, but it’s just part of the nature of staging live music events.
Most of the time, ticket-holders are handed a standard press release in which the cancellation is blamed on “schedule conflicts” or illness, regardless of whether either of these things are the true reason the tour or show was cancelled.
That’s why it was so refreshing several months back when Aussie band Closure In Moscow announced the cancellation of their Australian tour by kicking it straight to their fans and explaining the real reason behind the cancellation.
Similarly, the reason behind The Game’s very recent cancellation of his Australian tour dates is actually so ridiculous, it simply can’t be made up. Apparently, the Compton rapper got Australia and New Zealand confused.
As the New Zealand Herald reports, the organisers of NZ’s Raggamuffin festival claim The Game skipped a flight from Dubai and returned to Los Angeles instead of boarding a flight to Auckland to perform at Raggamuffin IX.
But in a post to his official Instagram post, the rapper insisted he didn’t miss his flight from Dubai. “I didn’t miss my flight, we were denied entry once we landed at Customs,” he wrote to 5.6 million followers.
As promoter of Raggamuffin IX we need to set the record regarding The Game straight:‘The Game’ was 100% approved to…
Posted by Raggamuffin Festival New Zealand onSaturday, February 20, 2016
However, according to the AAP, The Game was booted from Australia after flying in on the way to NZ and border security officials found that he had the wrong visa. TMZ claims security told The Game and his crew they did not have the correct visas.
As a result, The Game’s Australian tour has been cancelled, with full refunds offered to ticket-holders. Raggamuffin punters, meanwhile, responded with boos after they were informed of the cancellation as the festival went underway.
In a statement, Raggamuffin organiser Andrew McManus insisted The Game was approved to enter the country. “The Game was 100 percent approved to enter New Zealand. His management and I know this as a fact,” Mr McManus wrote.
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“We honestly believed The Game would honour his obligations to our festival and it was only when we had our people at the airport on Saturday to pick him up to play Raggamuffin IX did we find out he did not board the plane in Dubai. Statements to the contrary are simply not true.”
“At no point would we consider trying to swindle our faithful Raggamuffin family. The whole Raggamuffin team and myself personally are deeply disappointed by what happened yesterday and can only promise, if we can sort things out with The Game and his management, we will do everything we can to make this up to all of his upset and disappointed fans.”
Organisers said The Game would return in September for a NZ headline tour, but considering this is the third time the rapper has skipped out on his Kiwi fans, fans may not be so keen on spending their cash on a potential no-show.
