Italy bans Kanye West and Travis Scott concerts over security concerns
Italian authorities have barred Kanye West and Travis Scott concerts from going ahead, citing public order and security concerns.
Prefect Salvatore Angieri announced on Friday that the two events, due to take place in the northern city of Reggio Emilia in July, would not take place, following a request from the local Jewish community to cancel West’s gig.
The community’s leader Nicoletta Uzzielli had urged local officials to replace the show with a performance that would bring “music back to the forefront as a universally unifying force”.
West has caused outrage for a string of antisemitic, racist and pro-Nazi comments that recently led to him being banned from entering the UK.
Now known as Ye, the US rapper had been due to perform alongside Scott and other artists including The Chainsmokers, Rita Ora and Swedish House Mafia.
The regional prefecture said in a statement that several factors had weighed on its decision, including the “cancellation of previous concerts by the American rapper in other countries and the real risk of counter-demonstrations”.
It said that the closeness of the two events, scheduled for 17 and 18 July at Reggio Emilia’s RFC Arena, and the large crowds they were expected to attract was a further factor in the decision.
Scott faced intense scrutiny after 10 people, aged nine to 27, died during his Astroworld festival in Houston, Texas, in 2021.
Thousands of others were injured when panic broke out as the over-capacity crowd pressed towards the front of the stage during the US rapper’s headline performance.
Meanwhile, this summer’s Wireless Festival in London was cancelled last month, after West – who had been announced as its headline act – was refused permission to enter the UK amid a backlash over his previous remarks.
In 2022, West posted on social media saying he would go “death con 3 On Jewish people”, and in May last year, he released a song called Heil Hitler and sold T-shirts featuring swastikas.
His barring from the UK led to a series of cancellations elsewhere.
West announced on 15 April that the Marseille leg of his tour had been postponed “until further notice”. French media at the time reported that Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez had been looking to ban the 11 June gig.
His 19 June concert at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzów, Poland, was also cancelled “due to formal and legal reasons”, the venue said in April.
The rapper has been seeking a return to mainstream public view after apologising for his actions in a lengthy statement published in the Wall Street Journal in January.
“I am not a Nazi or an antisemite,” he wrote. “I love Jewish people.”
He added that, as a result of his bipolar disorder, he had “lost touch with reality”.
