All photos by Anthony Martino ©
XXXTentacion’s free, spur-of-the-moment September 2 show at the Orpheum was supposed to be a highlight of fans’ Labor Day weekend, but not even one of the hundreds who lined up around the block stepped foot in the venue.
“Tonight's show has been cancelled due to the fire department deeming it a safety hazard,” promoters Dope Entertainment wrote on Twitter in the moments after news of the cancellation came to fans (Dope Ent. is the company behind hugely successful global hip-hop festival Rolling Loud).“Sorry to all those that came out,” Dope Entertainment added.
Update:The Tampa Fire Department told CL that their investigators estimated about 2,000 people were lined up outside and added that promoters and the venue mutually decided that the volume of the crowd combined with confusion over ticketing (see more below) would cause a safety issue.
Update 2: The venue (via Facebook) and XXXTentacion (via Instagram stories) have both chimed in with their explanations. Read them, and see photos from the reaction to the cancellation, below.
XXXTentacion did appear behind the venue, but was seen leaving at one point in the night.
Update 3: At one point during his appearance behind the venue, a swarm of people approached XXXtentacion's vehicle, and our photographer caught at least one police officer threatening to use pepper spray. A full recount by our photographer, Anthony Martino is at the bottom of this post.
An email to City of Tampa officials has yet to be returned, but Tampa police spokesman Steve Hegarty did say that no one was arrested.
Our photographer Anthony Martino told CL that the crowd spilled out onto 7th. Avenue — which appeared to be closed to vehicular traffic — and that pepper spray was used in the crowd.
In all fairness, this show looked a little fucked from the get go. Only fans who received two confirmation emails were going to be let in, and XXXTencion — a 19-year-old Broward County rapper who has been hit with charges of aggravated battery and home invasion — has been a controversial figure in hip-hop with some outlets refusing to cover him due to the allegations of domestic violence. Booking a show, not to mention making it free, was a bold move by promoters and the venue.
In spite of that, he’s still been inspirational to fans who say that his overly-transparent lyrics about depression and suicide have helped them through hard times. Compton, California rapper Kendrick Lamar — who played to more than 13,000 fans at Tampa’s Amalie arena the night before the XXXTentacion show — has posted extremely glowing reactions to XXXTentacion’s debut LP, 17, even Tweeting that he had listened to it five times.
“Listen to this album if you feel anything,” Lamar wrote, raw thoughts.”
Stay with cltampa.com/music for any updates, including any plans to reschedule the show.
"Tampa, my deepest apologies. I drove all the way down here, I drove four hours just to basically have the show canceled on me. Apparently because it was over capacity, there was at least 3,000 to 4,000 of you outside, and the venue only could support 750. As far as the new free show, I’m going to try to and get a free show going, but that was the only venue that wanted to work with me, but you just bear with me, I’m going to try to work this out. For now the show is canceled, not due to my choice, it was just the venue, and the fire marshal said we could not do the show, so the show is canceled, I apologize, my deepest apologies."
— XXXTentacion via Instagram stories.
Recollection from photographer Anthony Martino
- I walked up at about 6:50pm EDT to sirens blaring and police cars on 19th ave. People were jumping the short wall in to the parking lot behind the orpheum and surrounded X's car.
- As I walked up everyone had their phones out and were taking photos and video.
- As X walked from his car to the rear entrance, people continued to swarm, police and security surround him and a woman as they enter the building.
- One officer had a mace spray in his hand yelling at young women to move back. As far as I saw it was not used, but this officer was extremely aggressive.
- The line then grew in to a crowd since everyone lost their spot when people followed x's car.
- The crowd then grew up front, with some people still trying to stay in line on the sidewalk and around the corner.
- Police blocked off 7th ave between 19th and 20th st
- Time passes, the crowd yells "we want x" and other chants as if the show is still happening. Nothing violent, no fights, no arguments. People are just excited for the show and crowded.
- Shortly after X left, confirmed to me by one employee and one fan, the police got on a loud speaker and said the show was cancelled and everyone needs to leave.
- When the police started marching forward some people left, but most tried to stay in line, perhaps because they couldn't hear the order to leave.
- As police pushed forward fights broke out and the police stormed the crowd to break it up and began using pepper spray on the crowd by the door. everyone on 7th got a taste of it.
- I saw one of the first people in line running away, eyes shut, crying from pain with her friend holding her up as they ran. I saw this on multiple occasions to other young people.
- I saw one female officer spraying her mace behind her as she walked forward.
- When all the spray started hitting everyone, a large portion of the crowd bolted down 7th. Some went down side streets, but many continued down 7th all the way to 14th street. This is where the closest thing to a "riot" happened. In reality it's just a large group of kids who were just pepper sprayed. I saw one person jump on the hood of a cop car, and two people jumped on top of a smart car. There was only one other fight that I saw, which happened by centro and all involved were able to walk away.
- As I got to 14th st, one cop yelled "YBOR'S CLOSED" so I asked him, "all of it?" and he screamed 'YES'. That's when I crossed to the other side of 7th and started walking back to the orpheum, even though that cop told me it was "closed". Everything seemed like it had been pushed enough to cause the groups to leave down different side roads.
