UPDATE (Sept. 19):
PNE Amphitheatre has provided XXL with an updated statement regarding the events following the cancelation of Lil Baby's headlining performance at the Breakout Festival:
"Last night, at the BREAKOUT Festival, a two-day event held at the PNE Amphitheatre, the headline artist scheduled to play on the second day left the venue after becoming ill and stating he was not well enough to perform. This decision was made immediately prior to his scheduled appearance time, and PNE staff were not made aware of the change until the performer had already vacated the site.
The approximately 5200 guests in the amphitheatre were made aware of the change at approximately 9:15 pm. Approximately 4200 of those guests vacated the venue in an orderly fashion. We would like to thank them for exiting our venue and neighbourhood respectfully. Approximately 1000 of the guests turned their disappointment into a violent outburst that resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to PNE property inside the Amphitheatre and in Hastings Park. It is our understanding that there was additional damage to property outside of Hastings Park, in the community and to local businesses. For this, we are incredibly sorry to our neighbours.
The display of senseless violence and aggression has shaken our team. The PNE is proud to host approximately 1800 event days per year, safely and respectfully. Last night’s events are inexcusable and do not reflect the values of the PNE or the vast majority of our guests. We are thankful to the members of the Vancouver Police Department and Metro Vancouver Transit Police who worked quickly to restore order to our community. We will continue to work with them and cooperate in any way possible in the course of their investigation.
We will also be working with any members of our neighbourhood, businesses or residences who were affected in order to ensure we can help support them. We are still working through logistics of how this will work and will keep stakeholders advised.
Today, we are providing support to our staff team members who were on site for last night’s events and beginning the process of cleaning up and repairing our venue.
We will be working with the promoter of BREAKOUT Festival, Timbre Events, and their insurance provider, in order to ensure the complete and timely repair of all damages related to this incident, within our site and throughout our city."
ORIGINAL STORY (Sept. 19):
Lil Baby fans started a riot in Vancouver, British Columbia after his headlining performance at the Breakout Festival was canceled at the last minute.
On Sunday (Sept. 18), the two-day Breakout Festival that took place at Vancouver, British Columbia's PNE Amphitheatre ended in utter chaos when upset festivalgoers lashed out after learning that Lil Baby had canceled his set. In video footage obtained by TMZ, the eagerly awaiting audience can be heard booing loudly when it was announced that the Atlanta rapper would not be hitting the stage. From there, crowds of people can be seen destroying tents, throwing garbage, raiding merchandise booths and smashing equipment.
When news of the Breakout Festival riot began to make its rounds online on Monday (Sept. 19), Lil Baby hit up his Instagram Story with an apology to the disappointed concertgoers and those who organized the festival. The "In a Minute" rapper also offered up an explanation for the late cancelation, explaining that he was simply too exhausted to give his all for the performance.
"I would like to start off by saying I truly apologize [to] Vancouver, Canada, the Breakout Festival and everyone who was in attendance," wrote Baby. "I have been going so hard these past few months without any breaks, that it finally caught up with me and my body completely shut down. I owe you guys big time and will, for sure, make up for it soon."
A representative from the PNE Amphitheatre provided the following statement to XXL:
"Following an announcement that the headliner at BreakOut Festival would not be performing, fans turned their disappointment into anger, doing significant damage to the PNE Amphitheatre and parts of Hastings Park. Today, our first priority is for the safety and well-being of our staff as many were deeply affected by the reaction of guests and behaviour that ensued. We thank the Vancouver Police Department for their quick and professional response which prevented the situation from becoming much worse. To our neighbours – the PNE is incredibly sorry for the actions of those guests and impact this behaviour may have had on our community. We will be undertaking a full investigation and will be making further statements shortly."
Other rappers who took the stage at this past weekend's Breakout Festival in Canada include Trippie Redd, Quavo and Takeoff, Polo G and Cordae.
At the end of August, Lil Baby wrapped up a massive co-headlining tour with Chris Brown that saw the "Drip Too Hard" spitter perform 27 shows in just over one month.
XXL has also reached out to representatives for Lil Baby and the Breakout Festival for a statement regarding the matter.