Two October concerts by American rapper Kanye West at St. Petersburg's Gazprom Arena will not take place because no venue lease was ever signed, the stadium said in a statement late Monday.
The shows, scheduled for Oct. 10 and 11, had been announced on the arena's own website with ticket links, and organizers say more than 100,000 tickets were sold. The arena's website went down briefly after the cancellation news surfaced.
Say Agency, the Moscow-based promoter, denied the cancellation, with director Anna Subcheva stating the lease simply needed to be finalized by Aug. 27 and insisting the performances would go ahead. Tickets remained listed on the agency's site at prices up to 50,000 roubles.
Sources cited by local outlets attributed the reported cancellation to intervention by senior officials in Moscow, saying the events had not received high-level government approval.