The Weeknd performs on the Coachella stage during the 2022 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival on April 24, 2022 in Indio, Calif.Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Rogers Centre says the tour stop by The Weeknd in Toronto has been postponed to a later date due to service outages affecting operations at the venue.
It says information on a new show date will be shared as soon as possible.
Rogers Centre says all tickets will be honoured for the new date and apologizes for the inconvenience.
The Rogers outage is disrupting services across Canada. A list of what is affected
The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn stadium tour was scheduled to kick off Friday night in his hometown, at the Rogers Centre.
The Toronto date was one of only two set for Canada.
According to promoter Live Nation, the venue’s operations and infrastructure were not possible until full service was back.
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) July 8, 2022
The Weeknd issued a statement: “I’m crushed and heartbroken. Been at the venue all day but it’s out of my hands because of the Rogers outage. Operations and safety are compromised and I tried my absolute best. This one hurts the most, and we will make this show happen, but unfortunately not tonight. I know how long you’ve been waiting and how hard a lot of you worked to make it to the show and experience this special moment with me. I can’t wait to see you all.”
A month ago, Justin Bieber cancelled a pair of concerts at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on similar short notice because of illness.
The Weeknd’s tour was delayed twice because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so dates in Edmonton, Winnipeg and Montreal were pulled from the calendar.
The 19-date North American leg moves into the United States next week before he returns to Canada to play Vancouver’s BC Place on Aug. 25.
The announcement came as Canadian concertgoers were being asked to save or print off their tickets as a widespread network outage at Rogers Communications Inc. stymied mobile internet access for many.
Scotiabank Arena in Toronto suggested those attending tonight’s Roger Waters show save their mobile tickets to their Apple Wallet or Google Pay, depending on the model of phone they have.
A few blocks away, Massey Hall encouraged people to print off their tickets to comedian Hannah Gadsby’s Friday night show and the same was true of Budweiser Stage, also in Toronto, where country music star Keith Urban is set to perform.
The venue, which is cashless, also urged people to bring a credit card to pay for food and drink, as the outage affected debit transactions administered by Interac.
Rogers posted a notice on its website Friday saying the outage was affecting both its wireless and home service customers and its phone and chat support.
The company offered no explanation for the outage, its expected length and how many customers were impacted but promised technical teams were “working hard to restore services as quickly as possible.”
The Rogers outage also caused problems for police, radio broadcasters and Service Canada passport offices.
Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.