Italian authorities have banned upcoming concerts by Kanye West and Travis Scott that had been scheduled to take place in July in the northern city of Reggio Emilia, citing security concerns.
West, now known as Ye, was scheduled to headline the Hellwat Festival on July 18 at the RCF Arena in Reggio Emilia. The venue has a capacity of 103,000 spectators, that would have made it one of West’s biggest arena appearances ever, according to organizers. Scott was expected to perform at the RCF Arena on July 17.
Reggio Emilia prefect Salvatore Angieri on Saturday announced he had ordered the cancellation of both concerts, citing security concerns after the city’s Jewish community, anti-fascist resistance groups, trade unions and politicians called for West’s concert to be canceled in April due to the rapper’s antisemitic remarks.
In a statement posted on social media, the Hellwat Festival team announced that they will still try to bring Kanye West to Italy on July 18th in a location near Reggio Emilia, but under a different jurisdiction.
West, who has said “I Love Nazis” on social media, sold T-shirts with a swastika on his website and last year released a song called “Heil Hitler,” has faced cancelled gigs in the U.K., France, Switzerland and Poland. He published a full-page apology in the Wall Street Journal in January, attributing his behavior to manic episodes caused by bipolar disorder.
Angeri cited the close timing of the Scott and West shows, and the large crowd expected to flock into Reggio Emilia within 24 hours, as well as the “concrete risk” of protests over Kanye West, as the reasons for the double ban. Scott held a tragic concert in 2021 at the Astroworld festival in Houston, where 10 people died in a crowd crush.
Meanwhile, on Saturday night, West kicked off his summer tour with a massive concert at Istanbul’s Atatürk Olympic Stadium reportedly drawing a crowd of 118,000 – which he claimed is the largest stadium performance in history – and with Scott also on the globe-shaped stage. The pair recently teamed on the collaborative track “Father” from West’s latest album, “Bully.”
While the U.K. government blocked Ye from entering the country and several other European nations followed, fans travelled to Istanbul from the U.K., the U.S., Germany, Poland, Russia and Kazakhstan to catch the concert, according to the organizer, Erdem Karahan.
For the remainder of his European tour, West is currently scheduled to perform in the Netherlands on June 6 and 8; Tirana, Albania, on July 11; and in Prague on July 25.
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