Kid Rock Fans Were Up in Arms After a Last-Minute Show Cancellation in North Dakota
Chaos ensued at the North Dakota State Fair on Friday (July 22), after Kid Rock cancelled his scheduled, sold-out performance at the last minute.
The country-rock singer posted a message on Twitter sharing his chagrin at missing the concert: "SO P--SED OFF," he wrote, citing "high winds" as the reason why the show couldn't go on. "I know it sucks but none of us can control mother nature. Please be safe leaving and take care of each other."
But it seems that not all of the concert-goers heeded that advice. According to video footage obtained by TMZ, angry fans began to boo and throw beer cans as crew members started breaking down the stage set. One man even got up onstage, where he appears to say something to a crew member before getting tackled by security. Another image shows the man being led through the parking lot in handcuffs.
According to TMZ, the 18,000-fan crowd waited an hour and a half after Rock was originally scheduled to take the stage, and ultimately, at about 11PM, an officer from the Ward County Sheriff's Department got onstage to announced that Rock's appearance had been canceled. The Sheriff's Department subsequently posted a Facebook status clarifying that "the decision to cancel the Kid Rock concert was not made by the Sheriff's Department."
One disappointed concertgoer also posted video of the cancellation's aftermath, explaining that as the venue began to empty out, confetti started shooting out over the remaining audience members.
Rock is currently in the midst of his Bad Reputation Tour, which is scheduled to pick up after a month-long break on Aug. 5 in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Rock returned to the road after COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns in 2021, but soon had to cancel some shows after "over half his band" contracted "f--king Covid," per a tweet from the star. "And before u s--t for brains bloggers and media run your mouths, many of them, like me, have been vaccinated," Rock added.
After he announced the Bad Reputation Tour, the singer vowed he wouldn't perform at venues with COVID-19 vaccine or mask mandates, explaining that doing so would be antithetical to his defiant fiery new batch of music.
"If you think I'm gonna sit out there and sing, 'Don't Tell Me How to Live' and 'We the People' while people are holding up their f---ing vaccine cards and wearing masks, that s--- ain't happening," he said at the time, according to People.