Ed Sheeran called out of his Allegiant Stadium show about an hour and a half before its scheduled start Saturday, leaving fans who had waited inside and outside the stadium — some for hours — confused and frustrated.
Sheeran posted to social media at around 5:30 p.m. saying there were challenges encountered during the load in of the show.
“It’s impossible to go forward with the show. I’m so sorry,” Sheeran wrote in an Instagram post. “I know everyone has travelled in for this and I wish I could change it.”
That same Instagram post is how many of the thousands of fans in and around Allegiant Stadium found out about the show’s cancellation.
After seeing the post, CJ Fuentes turned around and told everyone in line that the show had been canceled. Fuentes’ announcement was how Steve Polevoi and his daughter, who were also in line, found out about the cancellation.
“This is egg on the face of the promoter and I think on Sheeran for a lack of communication,” Polevoi said.
Rachael Johnson and Alex Newill, who came from Phoenix to see the show, said they also had their phones open to Sheeran’s Instagram post so they could alert fellow attendees about the cancellation.
The concert will be postponed to Saturday, Oct. 28, with all purchased tickets valid for the new date.
But for Matt Wenet and Raeann Schneider, a Canadian couple who spent $400 on tickets and traveled to Las Vegas from Saskatchewan to celebrate Schneider’s 28th birthday, the rescheduled date rings hollow.
“It just sucks because now we’re not going to see him because we’re obviously not spending all of that money to come back to Vegas,” Schneider said.
“This was the reason we came to Vegas,” she said. “Like we wouldn’t have come here otherwise.”
Production issues, attendees passing out
Word from inside the show were that “production issues” forced the move. There was no significant structural incident or accident reported.
In a statement posted online ahead of the cancellation, Allegiant Stadium said doors had been significantly delayed and that updated door times would be posted to the stadium’s social media accounts.
There was no further explanation from Allegiant Stadium officials for the halt in Sheeran’s “Mathematics” tour stop.
Sheeran and his band perform in the round, with a giant, 360-degree, interlocking video display overhead. The design is unique, complex with multiple sound towers leaning over the audience and ringing the LED display.
Allegiant crew were told that 65,000 tickets for the show were sold, which would have made it the biggest concert ever at Allegiant Stadium. The show was not quite totally sold out at the time of the announcement, with brokers reporting some GA floor seats were still available.
Sheeran stayed back and signed autographs and posed for selfies inside the stadium on the east side of the stadium until about 6:30 p.m.
But fans said people were passing out from the heat and lack of water outside and just inside the stadium before Sheeran’s announcement.
The Clark County Fire Department did not respond to a request for comment Saturday about responding to medical issues outside the stadium.
Johnson and Newill said they had to carry a woman who passed out to the stadium’s medical tent, and a pregnant woman in front of them in line stepped out to get shade because she was afraid of going into labor.
Fuentes said he saw at least five people taken out of the stadium in wheelchairs.
“We were just worried about safety and communication,” Newill said. “Us having to be the ones who had to carry the people to medics, having to tell people it was canceled, it was unacceptable.”
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