Kanye West’s Italian concert is cancelled for ‘safety reasons’ following local protests over rapper’s controversial comments praising Hitler
Kanye West’s concert in Italy has been cancelled and is unlikely to go ahead this year, MailOnline can reveal.
The controversial rapper, 46, had been due to perform last week at the RCF Arena near Reggio Emilia, but the gig was postponed due to bad weather and a train strike.
It had been rescheduled for this Friday at the same venue – where Harry Styles played to more than 80,000 last August – but has now been cancelled again with officials blaming ‘security and organisational’ issues.
The proposed concert had sparked anger with many locals – particularly given Kanye’s previous anti-Semitic comments and his praise for Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
Local prefect Maria Rita Cocciufa said: ‘We had no option but to cancel the event. These things take a lot of organising, you have to have a health plan, traffic plan and some idea of how tickets are being sold and numbers.
You have to have all these things in place because you have to guarantee the safety and security of the people attending and as a city, we were ready but we just hadn’t heard anything from the organisers so for safety reasons it had to be cancelled – the concert was due to take place Friday and on Monday we had still heard nothing.’
A huge set had been built at the site earlier this month is now being dismantled and a convoy of trucks was seen leaving the area.
Veterans groups and also women’s rights organisations had blasted local authorities for agreeing to the gig which had been expected to attract more than 100,000 and was promoted by Milan based Vivo Concerti.
In a shock interview last year, Kanye said: ‘Every human being has something of value they brought to the table, especially Hitler.
‘I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis. There’s a lot of things that I love about Hitler, a lot of things, I like Hitler, I am a Nazi.’
Albertina Soliani, vice president of (ANPI) National Association of Italian Partisans, stormed: ‘It’s time to say enough to these people who believe they can say what they want.
