A riot broke out at Breakout fest after Lil Baby canceled his headlining set
Rioting occurred at Vancouver's Breakout Festival on Sunday night (9/18) after Lil Baby canceled his headlining set with no notice — the announcement was made at 9:30 PM, which was 30 minutes before his set was supposed to end.
According to The Vancouver Sun, seven people were arrested and the PNE Amphitheater where the festival was held sustained thousands of dollars in damage. Vancouver police say “several hundred people” were involved in the incident, which, as video on social media captured, included the destruction of vendor kiosks, trash bins being overturned, and more. There were no major injuries reported to the police, however.
Lil Baby cited exhaustion as his reason for cancelling, and wrote on his Instagram stories before the rioting began, “I would like to start off by saying I truly apologize Vancouver, Canada, The Breakout Festival, and To Everyone who was in attendance! 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.”
PNE Amphitheatre released a statement, which reads, "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. At this time our first priority is for the safety and wellbeing 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,” the statement continued. “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.”
Watch a local news report about the Breakout Fest riot below.