Italian authorities have canceled Kanye West and Travis Scott’s upcoming concerts due to take place in July at a major stadium in northern Italy, citing security concerns.
Both shows were scheduled at the RCF Arena in Reggio Emilia, Scott on July 17 and West headlining the Hellwat Festival on July 18.
The venue seats 103,000, which would have made it one of West’s largest stadium appearances.
Reggio Emilia Prefect Salvatore Angieri announced the cancellation on Saturday, noting the large volume of people expected to arrive in the city within 24 hours, as well as what he described as a “concrete risk” of protests surrounding West’s appearance.
The call to cancel West’s show had been growing since April, when the city’s Jewish community, anti-fascist resistance groups, unions and politicians called for his concert to be cancelled.
West, who now goes by the name Ye, has made a series of widely condemned anti-Semitic statements, sold T-shirts with a swastika on his website and released a song last year titled Heil Hitler.
He has faced bans and show cancellations in the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland and Poland.
In January, he published a full-page apology in the Wall Street Journal, attributing his behavior to manic episodes brought on by bipolar disorder.
Scott’s concert was affected by the same decision, although authorities made clear that the cancellation in his case was a safety consideration rather than a ban on the artist performing in Italy.
Scott’s own history with large crowds is significant: Ten people died in a crush at his Astroworld festival in Houston in 2021.
Hellwat Festival organizers said they would try to rebook West’s show on the same date at a different venue near Reggio Emilia, under a different jurisdiction.
The cancellations come just one day after West launched his summer European tour with a concert at Istanbul’s Atatürk Olympic Stadium, which reportedly drew a crowd of 118,000, a figure West said made it the largest stadium performance in history.
Scott also performed at the show, as the pair recently collaborated on the song Father from West’s latest album, Bully.
Fans reportedly traveled from the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Poland, Russia and Kazakhstan to attend.
West’s remaining European dates currently include the Netherlands on June 6-8, Tirana, Albania on July 11, and Prague on July 25.
