Pollstar (12/16/24) Pittman, Sarah
The live events industry saw its share of cancellations in 2024. Some were unavoidable, such as tour dates called off due to ailments. For instance, Childish Gambino had to cancel his first headline tour in five years to undergo surgery. Cancellations because of weather were among the most common. This included a major rainstorm that forced Miami's Ultra Music Festival to cancel day one of the March event mid-show. Back in September, with many regions of California sweltering under a persistent heat wave, the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles lost power and resulted in the KCRW Festival cancelling less than an hour before showtime. And, of course, Hurricane Helene brought about concert cancellations and caused actual damage to venues throughout the Southeast. Some cancellations were completely unpredictable. Four months prior to The Black Keys' “International Players Tour” was scheduled to begin, the band announced it was canceling the arena trek in favor of a more "intimate" routing. On the flip side, the North American arena leg of Shakira's "Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour" was called off only a few weeks ahead of launch because the recording artist wanted to upgrade the venues to stadiums. Finally, there were the "oddball cancellations." Perhaps most notably, Tenacious D cancelled the rest of its tour after guitarist Kyle Gass joked about the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
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