A Live Nation-promoted Lil Yachty show in Vancouver was cut short this weekend after the rapper encouraged audience members in seated areas of the venue to come down to the front of the stage, creating concerns of overcrowding in the mosh pit.
In a video shared on social media the rapper is seen urging his audience at UBC's Thunderbird Sports Centre on Saturday night to "come down here" and "fill it up, fill it up", after which many fans rush towards the area in front of the stage.
After a few more songs, the venue seemingly cut the sound and turned on the house lights. The rapper's mic was then turned back on so he could tell fans "they say you have to go back to the seats or we're going to have to cancel the show".
Seemingly many fans did not return to their seats and so the show was cancelled. Posting on Instagram after the cut short gig, Lil Yachty wrote: "They shut us down last night Vancouver - we gotta run that shit backkkkkkkkk".
The venue's management issued their own statement yesterday, stating: "During the performance, the artist had invited attendees from reserved seating in the stands to join the floor area".
"This put the floor area over capacity", it added, "so UBC and Live Nation staff paused the show to direct audience members back to their seats. When the performer reappeared, the floor began to fill again".
Venue operators, of course, are generally concerned about crowd management issues, and all the more so since the tragedy that occurred at the 2021 edition of Travis Scott's Astroworld festival. As the promoter of that festival, presumably Live Nation will be telling Lil Yachty to refrain from actively encouraging fans to surge forward at future shows.