Venue Releases Statement After Viral Video Of Ice Spice Cut Off

Rapper Ice Spice faced a wave of backlash after arriving nearly 30 minutes late to her highly anticipated New Year’s Eve performance at the Wildlands Festival in Queensland, Australia.

The “Barbie World” singer, who was the headline act, was scheduled to perform at the Brisbane Showgrounds on Tuesday evening.

However, fans of Ice Spice were left frustrated when the rapper showed up 25 minutes late for her 30-minute set.

When Ice Spice finally hit the stage, the situation only worsened. Just five minutes into her performance, her microphone was cut off by event organizers due to the looming 12:30 a.m. curfew. Despite appearing to continue performing, her voice couldn’t be heard as the stage was being cleared to make way for the next act.

As boos echoed from the crowd, the “Deli” artist was seen pacing back and forth across the stage before flashing a peace sign and exiting without addressing the audience.

Disappointed fans, some of whom had traveled up to six hours and spent over $350 per ticket, took to social media to express their anger.

Video footage of the brief and chaotic performance quickly went viral, with many questioning the lack of professionalism and the festival’s time management.

“Being late is just unprofessional, in the UK we have curfews for music so if someone runs over the mic is just cut, I’ve never seen an artist here be late cos we just don’t allow it,” one person expressed in the comments section.

“Let’s respect everybody’s time and money,” another said.

“I love that she looks like she wants to cry,” a third expressed.

In response to the backlash, Wildlands Festival organizers issued a statement on Instagram addressing the situation:

“We understand that Ice Spice’s delayed arrival caused some disappointment. Managing a stacked festival means that we have to be extremely firm with set times. We had a strict curfew of 12:30 and need to ensure that the final act went on stage on time, so everyone could enjoy the New Year’s Eve countdown.”

“She’s disrespectful, so good on Wildlands,” one user said after hearing the venue’s response.

“All venues should do this when artists are late,” another said.

“Them pulling the plug on her was iconic,” a third commented.

Gold Coast music podcaster and journalist Brenton Larney was among the audience for the brief six-minute performance.

“At 11.01pm – they gave her an extra minute … – they cut the mic and you heard the collective sigh from the crowd,” he told The Guardian. “They’d been waiting for a while and they get two songs? So that was a bit ridiculous and it was just really disrespectful how she walked off, she was laughing they tried to give her flowers for her birthday and she just shrugged them off.”

He noted that Ice Spice seemed subdued and gave off the impression that “she didn’t want to be there.”

“It was just really disrespectful to see, especially with all the cancellations and stuff we’ve had in the Australian music scene,” he said. “It didn’t help.”

Mia Sims, a 20-year-old dance teacher from the Gold Coast, shared that she and many others had arrived 30 minutes early to secure a good spot in the mosh pit before Ice Spice’s scheduled performance. As a result, fans were pressed together for nearly an hour in total, all for what turned out to be an extremely brief set.

“And she came out and played two songs – and they weren’t even two of her most popular songs,” Sims said. “It kind of seemed like a bit of a joke, like she didn’t really care that much and especially, like, she hasn’t posted anything on her socials or apologized. So I couldn’t imagine being one of her biggest fans and that happening. I’d be pretty devastated”.