Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Ed Sheeran Postpones Las Vegas Concert at Last Minute
Billboard: d Sheeran postponed his concert at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium at the last minute on Saturday (Sept. 9), leaving thousands of fans waiting outside in the uncomfortable heat.
The British pop star took to social media at around 5:30 p.m. PT to break the news to concertgoers, many of whom traveled from other cities to attend the show and were lined up outside the venue.
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4 comments:
While problems with load-ins happen often, they’re often small problems that can be easily fixed and doesn’t affect the safety of the performer and/or audience. With big problems like these, it would’ve been a problem that already existing, which would’ve meant the team did not do enough preparation, which would be understandable with tours, but at the same time, when you are giving such a short notice I feel like it does indeed let the fans down, as they’ve been anticipating it for so long and paid so much money for the tickets, and some fans even flown in for other places only for this to happen. I did a show and because of a covid, we had to reschedule, and it took so much effort because of people’s schedules, and their venue’s booking as well, and I can only imagine how much money Ed Sheeran and his team put in for the show to be rescheduled, as well as the fans.
Having to postpone or cancel a show is one of the worst things that a producer can have to do. It has both serious economic implications and disappoints the fans of the production. Because of this, there is often a lot of pressure that “the show must go on.” All that being said, I am glad that in this case, the producers did decide to cancel the show rather than push on with a potential safety issue. All too often projects have pushed on even when somebody was raising the alarm, leading to disasters such as the Indiana State Fair collapse. As bad as canceling a show is, it is much better than injury or death.
The other lesson I think can be learned from this story is that new and innovative designs carry inherent risks. The scenic design for this tour is interesting and revolutionary, but no one would have thought that the coefficient of static friction between a tower and the floor would be important in any other circumstance. New and interesting designs can have unforeseen issues which can only be found by trying it.
Obviously no one likes a cancelled show… The fans don’t want it, the artist doesn’t want it, the producers don’t want it, no one does! I genuinely feel bad for the fans because I know it must have been disheartening to hear about the cancellation right before the show when they were probably all there by that time. Despite not quite understanding the exact problem behind it, I agree that the safety of everyone should always be the top priority. I’m glad that Ed Sheeran is acknowledging that in his statement. I have no doubt that the crew and stagehands worked extremely hard to salvage anything they could, and I have much respect for them knowing how difficult that must have been. In the theatre industry, show cancellation is also not completely uncommon. Many times it falls on the Stage Manager to decide, but I think the real tricky part is figuring out what to do after calling the cancelation.
Large touring shows, especially concerts, are unfathomable to me. The amount of people, time, and money it involves to put up shows like these are wild. I feel for Ed Sheeran, especially because I can imagine he is not part of the setup at all. Yet, being a public figure, nearly 65,000 people came to see it, and he had to be the one to take responsibility and break the news to his fans that the show could not be performed. I cannot imagine that all the people were happy to hear the news, specifically the ones who paid for travel, hotels, and much more just to attend the concert. He very well could've lost fans and in the age of the internet, this could've spread to a lot worse repercussions. In looking into the industry, I have never particularly gravitated towards concerts and the production involved with those, due to setting up shows in spaces not made for them. Reading articles like these solidifies my thoughts even more.
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