The concert of American rapper and producer Kanye West (Ye) was not coordinated in all the instances necessary for the show. According to two interlocutors of Fontanka, it was canceled after a call from Moscow.
The issue of holding a concert was raised six months ago, but then other organizers were doing it and they allegedly received a refusal in words. This time the announcement of the concert was made ahead of time.
"It turned out that they wanted to announce later when all the formalities would be complied with," said a source in the authorities.
The second interlocutor of the portal said that Gazprom Arena received a call and was told to cancel the event.
At the same time, the Say Agency concert agency claims that the cancellation came as a complete surprise to them.
"The arena did not notify us about its statements, we learned from the media," said Anna Subcheva, the agency's general director.
According to her, the site lease agreement was to be signed in the near future.
"Our lease agreement was sent, it was supposed to be signed on August 27," she told RIA Novosti.
Currently, Say Agency representatives are trying to contact Gazprom Arena and resolve the "issue that has arisen."
As reported by EADaily, earlier SAY Agency on its social media page announced two concerts of Kanye West in Russia.
The concerts were scheduled for October 10-11 at the Gazprom Arena in St. Petersburg, which has a capacity of up to 80 thousand spectators.
According to the official portal of the event, the most expensive tickets for both concerts are almost sold out, there are still a couple of seats in VIP boxes worth 160 thousand rubles.
According to Anna Subcheva, CEO of SAY Agency, negotiations on concerts in Russia have been underway since 2024, during which time the musician's team managed to change. Initially, Ye's concerts were planned to be held in Moscow at the Luzhniki stadium, this stadium is an open area, Gazprom Arena was chosen due to possible weather problems.
According to Russian producer Joseph Prigozhin, West's fee for two concerts could be $ 20 million. He was sure that West's concerts in St. Petersburg would have a positive impact on tourism, as they would attract a large flow of foreign visitors to Russia.
Today, on August 24, an official statement appeared on the Gazprom Arena telegram channel stating that the venue "did not sign any stadium lease agreements for the event. There is no such agreement. Accordingly, the concert cannot take place on our site."
At the same time, a message announcing the concert in the telegram channel of the venue is still available, as well as a repost from the telegram channel of the Zenit club with an offer to participate in the drawing of two tickets for the concert of the legend.