Photo Credit: Matt Seymour
Italian authorities have banned Kanye West and Travis Scott concerts from taking place in Reggio Emilia, citing public order and security concerns.
On Friday, Italian Prefect Salvatore Angieri announced that two concerts by Kanye West and Travis Scott will not be taking place. The two concerts were scheduled to take place in northern Italy in the city of Reggio Emilia in July. The news follows requests from the local Jewish community to cancel Kanye West’s gig after his rampant descent into antisemitism in recent years.
West, who now goes by Ye, was due to perform alongside Scott and other artists, including The Chainsmokers, Rita Ora, and Swedish House Mafia. Community leader Nicoletta Uzzielli urged local officials to replace the planned shows with a performance that would bring “music back to the forefront as a universally unifying force.”
As for Travis Scott, the artist has faced scrutiny over safety at his concerts since the 2021 crowd crush incident at the Astroworld festival in Houston, which resulted in the deaths of 10 people and hundreds of injuries. The closeness of the two planned events (scheduled for July 17 and 18) at Reggio Emilia’s RCF Arena and the large crowds they were expected to attract raised concerns about safety.
Ye has been denied entry into several countries on the grounds that his presence would not be “conducive to the public good.” He was barred from entering Britain in April, and later that month postponed a show in France after reports that the local government was looking to block it. Meanwhile, concerts in Poland and Switzerland have also been cancelled.
However, his scheduled shows in the Netherlands next month are still set to go ahead thus far, as the country’s migration minister said there were no legal grounds to deny him entry.
“Solid grounds are needed to bar people from entering [the Netherlands]. We have not found those in the analyses that were conducted,” said Netherlands Deputy Prime Minister Bart van den Brink. “His past statements are not, at this moment, a reason to deny him entry.”
That said, some of the cancellations in other countries have come suddenly after it seemed as if they might still go ahead, so it’s difficult to say if the Netherlands show will meet the same fate. The shows are scheduled for June 6 and June 8 at the GelreDome in Arnhem, southeast of Amsterdam.
