Rihanna Is Three Hours Late To Concert: How To Prevent Artists From Being Tardy
The city of Boston has been through a lot lately. In the realm of things this is fairly trivial, but it’s still a “wicked pissa.”
Monday night (May 6), Rihanna was three hours late to her show in Bean Town. When she finally appeared on stage she offered no apology—not for being late nor for actually showing up.
No offense to anyone, but Rihanna isn’t good enough to warrant a three-hour wait. McCartney and the Stones are, maybe U2 if you have VIP tickets, but not Rihanna.
To make matters worse, her opening act, A$AP Rocky, canceled. So there was no opening act just hours and hours of silence.
Thankfully, when Rihanna did finally take to the stage, the crowd booed her. You don’t mess with Boston concerts.
Why was she late? Some speculate it had to do with her boyfriend Chris Brown. Others think she was watching the Bulls game—which makes sense since they defeated the Miami Heat that night.
This is becoming a trend for Hanna-Mana. In March, she was four hours late to a charity event. She told the children waiting for her that she was caught in Chicago traffic.
If you’re delayed by traffic then call the venue and tell them you’re running late. There are these things out now called “cell phones.” They allow you to make a phone call from just about anywhere.
If traffic is the culprit then say so. Chances are good that those waiting for you will understand your delay. After all, they live in the city and frequently experience heavy congestion. They’ll wonder how they made it to the venue on time and you didn’t, but still, they might understand.
Now that we’re blasting Rihanna for being late let’s talk about solutions. After all, there’s an easy way to fix this.
If the artist doesn’t take to the stage in a certain amount of time (say 30 minutes plus an hour for each warm-up act) then all holders of concert tickets are entitled to a full refund including service charge.
Since Ticketmaster won’t be returning the service charge, it will be up to the artist/promoter to make good. Promoters are business people; they will make damn sure the artist is on time. They don’t want to be on the hook for a hefty refund.
If they can pass laws about paperless tickets then they can pass laws about artists performing on time. Of course, the law will be applicable to other forms of entertainment but not sports.
Unlike the popular music world, sports league and sports promotions want their fans to be happy and will naturally do right by them. Music artists, since there’s only one of them, and they perform in a particular city with far less frequency, have no incentive to be fan-friendly.
The proposed law would change all that.
