A reported concert held by Kanye West to celebrate his upcoming album with Ty Dolla $ign has been cancelled over safety concerns before it was even announced.
Rumours about West performing at the RCF Arena (previously known as Campovolo) in Reggio Emilia, Italy earlier this month were rife, with claims that it was initially scheduled for earlier in October.
Now, The Daily Mail has reported that the show was postponed due to bad weather and a train strike in the area, and that the rescheduled show for today (October 27) has now been scrapped over safety.
Local prefect Maria Rita Cocciufa told the outlet: “We had no option but to cancel the event. These things take a lot of organising: you need to have a health plan, a traffic plan and some idea of how tickets are being sold and the number of people.
“You have to have all these things in place because you have to guarantee the safety and security of the people attending. As a city, we were ready, but we just hadn’t heard anything from the organisers so for safety reasons it had to be cancelled – the concert was due to take place Friday and on Monday we had still heard nothing.”
The location for the concert has so far not been confirmed nor denied by West’s team.
It follows Ty Dolla $ign announcing recently a “multi stadium listening event” for his reported joint album with West.
This week, Ty shared a post on Instagram that appeared to confirm that an album is coming. The post, shared to a totally wiped Instagram feed, features the yen ‘Y’ symbol next to a dollar-sign and the words: “multi stadium listening event November 3rd.”
The Daily Mail added that a set had been built on the site earlier in October but that it was now being dismantled. It claimed that a convoy of trucks was seen leaving the area.
Davide Caiti, partner of arena owner C.Volo, suggested that West’s US production team were to blame for the show not going ahead.
“We did what we had to do, our part was ready for the 20th – from the parking lots, to the internal staff, to the area itself,” Caiti told Il Resto Del Carlino.
“We were also waiting for the official announcement to continue operations. [West’s team] can say that nothing was ever officially announced, but it’s a bit of hiding behind a finger, because the request had arrived.”
Additionally, as Il Resto Del Carlino continued, talk of the concert had reportedly attracted anger from local groups in light of West’s statements last year, which many considered to be anti-Semitic.
The rapper’s remarks, which he defended himself for due to not believing in the term “antisemitism”, and which he later offered something of an apology for after offending people, prompted Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to cut ties with him, among other businesses linked to the artist and entrepreneur.
However, Caiti denied that the threat of protests was a factor in the cancellation of the show.
“Faced with an event of that magnitude and a business like that, production would certainly not have stopped due to four local controversies,” he said. “If they [cite] that, it will just be an excuse… maybe next time, we’ll get some more guarantees.”
Rumours about the gig were heightened earlier this month too when West reportedly held an intimate listening party at a recording studio in Italy to debut his new album.
According to The Sun the album preview was hosted on October 1 and is said to have included a collaboration with Ty Dolla $ign.
In other West news, actress Julia Fox has opened up about her former relationship with the rapper and producer, saying that there were “definitely some red flags”.