Vancouver (Metro News/Vancity Buzz/CBC/News1130) –Thursday Update – The Bon Jovi saga is a bad reality show, however… Jon Bon Jovi & the Kings of Suburbia will perform at Rogers Arena on Saturday.
But the concert will only be for fans who had already bought tickets to the original show at Stanley Park, which was cancelled earlier this week.
No additional tickets will be sold.
The promoter behind the original concert has blamed a lack of ticket sales for the event’s cancellation, claiming the band’s management team would not help with promotion or find a way to reschedule.
But Paul Korzilius of Bon Jovi Management says they were “forced” to announce the Stanley Park performance’s cancellation, claiming “Paper Rain Performances has perpetuated confusion and misinformation.”
Ticket holders can take their original tickets to Rogers Arena Saturday night, when they will be assigned a seating section according to the ticket level previously purchased.
Doors open to the show at 6:30 p.m. The performance begins at 8 p.m
Tuesday Update: Yup, the final decision. Shot down in a blaze of glory. Bon Jovi at Stanley Park is toast.
The Jon Bon Jovi concert planned for Saturday in Stanley Park has been cancelled.
The Vancouver Park Board says concert organizers did not have the proper permits — as of Monday — to carry out the show near Brockton Point in Stanley Park.
Sources told CBC that fewer than than 60 per cent of the 14,000 tickets had been sold.
Those tickets — which went on sale in June — were priced at between $40 and $600.
Organizers had said that $100,000 from the proceeds would be donated to charity, supporting child and adult education in Ethiopia.
The Park Board said it gave the initial green light for the event and made every effort to help organizers get the proper permits. The Park Board doesn’t know why the permits weren’t completed.
The concert promoter says it remains hopeful that there will be a future date for this show, but no date has been announced.
Monday Update: Bon Jovi’s Stanley Park performance, which was set to happen this Saturday, August 22 has been postponed, according to ClubZone. The concert would have kicked off Bon Jovi’s global tour
The historic event would have been the largest in Stanley Park history and was expected to draw more than 14,000 spectators.
Robby Krieger, former lead guitarist of The Doors, was set to open the show.
The tickets were sold in association with Tourism Vancouver, and many ticket holders from out of town were expected to attend the show. Partial proceeds from the ticket sales were going to go to imagine1day, a charity started by lululemon founder Chip Wilson.
The reason for the postponement is unclear at this time, although event organizer Paper Rain Productions sent out the following statement:
“We regret that we have been unable to gain the agreement of the artist’s management at this time regarding this postponement. We remain hopeful that a future date can be confirmed.”
Vancouver Parks Board acting manager Jonathan Snoek said in a statement that the concert organizers did not have the the proper permits in place. The City of Vancouver stresses that was not the reason for the cancellation.
“The Park Board provided the initial approval for the event and made every effort to assist organizers in meeting our protocols in the past months,” said Snoek.
“The Park Board was fully supportive of this event and regrets the cancellation.”
ORIGINAL STORY – It’s a shot through the heart for Bon Jovi fans.
The rock legend’s highly anticipated performance slated for Stanley Park’s Brockton Field on Saturday has been cancelled, a spokesperson for the band confirmed Monday.
In a statement, Bon Jovi Tours apologized to fans for the event’s sudden cancellation, blaming concert promoter Paper Rain Performances for failing to secure proper permits from the city, for not procuring staging materials and for failing to pay staging, security and lighting vendors, among others.
“The band was ready and willing to give a great performance on Saturday,” the spokesperson said. “Unfortunately, the local promoter, Paper Rain Performances, has proven unable to guarantee a properly-produced event … As such, they have not met their contractual obligations.”
The spokesperson, who directed questions about refunds to the promoter, said the band “shares the disappointment of fans” and that they had tried to keep the concert scheduled for Saturday.
Paper Rain Performances confirmed in a statement Monday that the event will no longer take place Saturday, although the company said it hoped the concert would be postponed and not cancelled.
“We regret that we have been unable to gain the agreement of the artist’s management at this time regarding this postponement,” the statement reads. “We remain hopeful that a future date can be confirmed.”
Jonathan Snoek, acting general manager for the park board, said the concert organizers were unable to secure the necessary event permits in time for Saturday’s concert.
“The park board was fully supportive of this event and regrets the cancellation,” Snoek said in a statement. “The park board provided the initial approval for the event and made every effort to assist organizers in meeting our protocols in the past months.”
A request for comment from Paper Rain Performances was not immediately returned Monday.
Ticket sales were stopped on the event’s website. It’s unclear if those who have already purchased tickets will be refunded.
Ticket prices for the concert ranged from $39 for general admission seats to $595 for VIP.
Bon Jovi’s performance was confirmed with great fanfare in June after Paper Rain Performances issued a promotional poster using a vaguely disguised silhouette of the performer that sparked fervent media speculation.
At a ritzy news conference to announce the concert, Dennis MacDonald, president of Paper Rain Performances, said organizers hoped the concert would be the first of a series of outdoor concerts in Stanley Park and elsewhere.
“The concert will be something not seen before,” MacDonald said at the time.
Paper Rain Performances partnered with the city and the park board to host the concert, which was privately funded with a budget of about $2 million.
The concert promoter was responsible for paying about $60,000 in rental fees to the park board for use of the venue, which has a capacity of about 14,000.
Paper Rain Performances also pledged to donate up to $100,000 of profit from ticket sales to imagine1day, a charitable organization that aims to provide all people in Ethiopia with access to quality education free of foreign aid by 2030.
