{"id":709232,"date":"2026-06-02T03:56:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T03:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/709232\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T03:56:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T03:56:22","slug":"italy-bans-kanye-west-travis-scott-concerts-over-safety-issues-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/709232\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy bans Kanye West, Travis Scott concerts over \u2018safety issues\u2019 – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italian authorities have banned two upcoming concerts involving rappers Kanye West<\/a> and Travis Scott<\/a> that were scheduled to take place in July, citing \u201cpublic order and safety issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

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West, who legally changed his name to Ye, was scheduled to perform at the Pulse of Gaia festival at the RCF Arena in Reggio Emilia on July 18, and Scott was set to perform on July 17 at Hellwatt festival.<\/p>\n

The government of Reggio Emilia held a meeting following the requests presented by the Jewish community of Modena and Reggio Emilia, \u201cwhich expressed concerns regarding the concert by rapper Kanye West.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKanye West denied entry to U.K., Wireless Festival cancelled\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cThe meeting was dedicated to examining the public order and safety issues associated with the American artist\u2019s (West) concert and the Travis Scott event, also scheduled at the RCF Arena,\u201d a statement issued by the government of Reggio Emilia<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBased on the assessments made during the committee meeting and further investigations into safety and security aspects, the prefect \u2026 (ordered) the prohibition of both concerts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision concerns two events scheduled for consecutive dates at the RCF Arena, a venue with a capacity of approximately 103,000 spectators, and was made to ensure public order and safety \u2026 given the close temporal connection between the events and the large crowds expected within 24 hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overall assessment also took into account the cancellation of previous concerts by the American rapper in other countries and the real risk of counter-demonstrations,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n

The local Jewish community and an Italian consumer rights organization had raised concerns about West\u2019s concert.<\/p>\n

The consumer rights organization, Codacons, released a statement following the news of West\u2019s cancelled concert<\/a> and revealed that it had sent a formal notice to the Prefect of Reggio Emilia to request the concert be cancelled for \u201cpublic order reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe artist\u2019s presence is currently at the center of a widespread and growing international controversy, fueled by his public statements and conduct, which have already been the subject of strong institutional backlash,\u201d Codacons wrote in its request.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis participation could generate tension, protests, and potential public disorder. This risk appears real, current, and foreseeable in light of objective and converging factors: the international media outcry, previous bans and postponements adopted in other European countries for reasons of public order, as well as the foreseeable mobilization of opposing groups during an event of extraordinary importance and high attendance.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn this context, the precautionary principle applies fully, requiring the administrative authority to intervene even in the presence of a potential risk, when primary concerns such as public safety and security are involved. It cannot be tolerated that an event already deemed problematic from a public order perspective in other European countries be authorized in Italy without a rigorous prior assessment,\u201d the group added in its request.<\/p>\n

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Codacons said it expresses satisfaction with the decision to cancel West\u2019s concert but also said it believes that concerts by Italian rappers should be banned as \u201cthrough their lyrics and behavior, they spread ideas of violence, racism, sexism and homophobia among young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

West and Scott have not released statements regarding the cancelled concerts as of this writing.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKanye West storms out of interview with Piers Morgan\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The move comes after Britain banned West from entering the country<\/a> following his history of antisemitic comments.<\/p>\n

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He was scheduled to perform as a headliner at the Wireless Festival in July but as a result of West\u2019s denied entry, the festival announced that its 2026 event would be cancelled.<\/p>\n

The festival\u2019s organizers confirmed the ban and said the entire three-day festival has been nixed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result of the Home Office banning YE from entering the United Kingdom, Wireless Festival has been forced to cancel. All ticket holders will receive an automatic full refund,\u201d a note on the official website<\/a>\u00a0read.<\/p>\n

West made an application to travel to the U.K. via an Electronic Travel Authorization, but it has now been blocked by officials on the grounds that the performer\u2019s presence in the country would not be \u201cconducive to the public good,\u201d the BBC said<\/a>, citing the Home Office.<\/p>\n

A senior member of the British government said that West should \u201cabsolutely not\u201d play the Wireless Festival as the rapper offered to meet members of the U.K.\u2019s Jewish community to show he purportedly changed since provoking outrage with multiple antisemitic statements over the past year.<\/p>\n

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The All Falls Down rapper said he \u201cwould be grateful for the opportunity to meet with members of the Jewish community in the U.K. in person, to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know words aren\u2019t enough \u2014 I\u2019ll have to show change through my actions,\u201d West said. \u201cIf you\u2019re open, I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This comes after West released a pro-Nazi song called\u00a0Heil Hitler\u00a0last year and\u00a0advertised a swastika T-shirt for sale<\/a> on his website. West apologized in January with a letter, published as a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal. He said his bipolar disorder led him to fall into \u201ca four-month long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

West\u00a0had previously been barred from entering Australia<\/a> last July following the release of Heil Hitler.<\/p>\n

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said West had been travelling for years to Australia, where his wife,\u00a0Bianca Censori<\/a>, was born. Her family lives in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Burke said\u00a0Heil Hitler promotes Nazism. The song, released last May, has been criticized as an antisemitic tribute to Hitler. It was also banned in Germany and from online platforms, including Apple Music, YouTube and Spotify.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to have a song and promote that sort of Nazism, we don\u2019t need that in Australia,\u201d Burke added. \u201cWe have enough problems in this country already without deliberately importing bigotry.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that the Australian government had not banned West from entering Australia permanently because \u201cevery visa application gets reassessed by my officials each time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAstroworld concert crush: Lawsuits representing over 200 injured victims filed, attorneys say\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The concert cancellations come five years after Scott\u2019s deadly Astroworld festival<\/a> in Houston, where 50,000 people were in the audience.<\/p>\n

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Scott\u2019s set turned deadly as fans surged toward the stage. The youngest victim was nine-year-old Ezra Blount<\/a>. The others who died ranged in age from 14 to 27. Some 300 people were injured and treated at the festival site and 25 were taken to hospitals.<\/p>\n

More than 300 lawsuits have been filed so far in Houston and will be consolidated and handled by one judge. Scott, concert promoter Live Nation and other companies associated with the event are among those being sued. Additionally, Scott and the event organizers are the focus of a criminal investigation by Houston police. No one has been charged and no timetable has been set for when the investigation will be completed.<\/p>\n

West performed in Istanbul over the weekend amid the ongoing controversy. Scott also joined West on stage during the show.<\/p>\n

West reportedly drew a crowd of over 118,000 to Istanbul\u2019s Atat\u00fcrk Olympic Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to tell y\u2019all, we just broke the record, 118,000, largest stadium performance of all time,\u201d West told the audience, according to Billboard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014with files from The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italian authorities have banned two upcoming concerts involving rappers Kanye West and Travis Scott that were scheduled to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,5099,341,9556],"class_list":["post-709232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-kanye-west","tag-music","tag-travis-scott"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}