Ticket-holders vented their anger on social media Saturday night after a popular Caribana event was cancelled less than two hours before it was scheduled to begin.Carnival Kingdom, which had been running for seven years, was cancelled out of the blue by the city, said Katherine Andrews, one of the event’s backstage/hospitality co-ordinators.The event was sold out, with roughly 9,000 to 10,000 people expected to show up, Andrews said. “They are angry they cannot get into the show that they’ve been waiting for all year. People paid a lot of money for this show,” she said.Carnival Kingdom, hosted by Summer of Sound Fest Inc., is the company’s biggest concert, Andrews said, and was to be held at the Improve Canada outdoor entertainment complex on Keele St., near Highway 407. It was the first time SOS Fest attempted to host the event in Vaughan. Tickets ranged from $35 to $95.“At 9 p.m., the doors were scheduled to open, and at 7:30 p.m., we got a text message from one of the people who delivered the permits, saying that they’ve revoked the permits for tonight’s concert,” Andrews said in an interview.Andrews said she was confused, because another concert Friday night at the venue went smoothly.“The police officers were very, very impressed that everything went very, very well,” Andrews said about that event. “They’re claiming, though, the reason they revoked the permits is because some of their MPs got noise complaints and the MP contacted the mayor of Vaughan, who revoked our permit right now.”York police said they were only there for security, as they have been at the other events. A Vaughan official said city staff revoked the permit.“City of Vaughan Bylaw and Compliance, Licensing and Permit Service staff revoked the permit of the event (SOS Fest) after it was determined that organizers did not comply with the terms of the permit,” a City of Vaughan spokesperson told t ...
|
