The Weeknd has postponed the opening show for his 2022 stadium tour.
The Grammy-winning artist was scheduled to kick off the opening on Friday night at Roger Centre—the largest venue in his hometown of Toronto; but shortly before the Weeknd was set to hit the stage, Roger Centre announced it had to cancel show due to a nationwide network outage.
Rogers Wireless, one of the biggest telecommunications companies in Canada, confirmed it’s experiencing a massive outage that’s disrupting its cellular, internet, and cable services. Rogers Centre is reportedly a cashless venue that relies on the wireless network for all transactions. Kye Prigg, a senior vice president at Rogers, told the CBC the company was trying to fix the issue as soon as possible, but couldn’t promise a resolution by Friday.
“I wouldn’t like to say whether it’s going to be fully online today or not, but we are working very, very hard on making sure that we get everything running as soon as possible,” he said. “[But] we’re getting very close to understanding the root cause of the of the failure. And we’re taking actions along with our network vendors to recover the situation. We don’t understand how the different levels of redundancy that we build across the network coast to coast have not worked.
Live Nation confirmed the postponement in a statement to ticket-holders:
The Weeknd was onsite and ready to play but due to the nationwide Rogers network outage The Weeknd show planned for this evening at Rogers Centre will be postponed as the venue’s operations & infrastructure are not possible until full service is back. Please hold on to your ticket. Updates on a new date coming soon.
The Weeknd announced his After Hours Till Dawn stadium tour back in March in support of his After Hours and Dawn FM projects. He told fans he was “crushed and heartbroken” over the Friday night cancelation, but reassured everyone the show will take place at a later date.
“I’m crushed & heartbroken. Been at the venue all day but it’s out of my hands because of the Rogers outage,” he said. “Operations and safety are compromised and I tried my absolute best. This one hurts the most, and we will make this show happen, but unfortunately not tonight. I know how long you’ve been waiting and how hard a lot of you worked to make it to the show and experience this special moment with me. I can’t wait to see you all.”
