Fans started a social media campaign to bring Ciara to Auckland after she had earlier been scheduled to play shows in Christchurch and Porirua. Photo: Unknown
RnB star Ciara’s Auckland concert has been cancelled after a dispute between the singer’s management, booking agents and promoters.
Online ticket seller Dash Tickets today removed the listing for the March 3 performance at Studio from its website. Early bird tickets and $110 meet and greet passes had already sold out before the listing was taken down about midday today.
Fans started a social media campaign to bring Ciara to Auckland after she had earlier been scheduled to play shows in Christchurch and Porirua.
Promoter Matty Peilua, who works for Ginnen Group and Castor & Ford, today announced the concert would not go ahead due to “fraudulent contracts” from the singer’s Australasian booking agents, Sin City Group.
In reply to an email from Peilua, Sin City booking agent Nav De Silva said the promoter was told the concert had been cancelled four days ago and his money refunded the next day.
However, Ciara’s manager Lisa Ellis said the '1,2 Step' singer was never booked to play in Auckland.
“There was never an Auckland date confirmed and that the promoters had been asked to cease advertising the Ciara’s performance,” she said.
“They tried to book it, but the dates never worked.
“We have told them multiple times to stop and to release accurate information, and that Ciara cannot do Auckland due to the schedule.
“We have always been departing out of Sydney back to the US And not returning to NZ. Not certain how this is not clear to them.”
Peilua said he had learned that Ciara’s Auckland show may not go ahead after talking to Ellis when she arrived in New Zealand last week.
Fans were also left disappointed after Ciara’s two other New Zealand shows. In Christchurch, she played for less than 10 minutes and in Porirua her set lasted only 23 minutes.
At both shows fans had paid up to $45 extra for meet-and-greet tickets but the star failed to turn up.
In response, Ciara told fans on Twitter that they had been misled:
@GrimmJayne @BenjiLatoa if anyone has paid to meet me, PLEASE demand your money back!! You were wrongly mislead!! This sucks!! ?
— Ciara (@ciara) February 19, 2015
Ellis said Ciara had never agreed to the meet-and-greets and that she’d expected to play “club shows”, not full concerts.
Peilua said he had contracts with Sin City, the singer’s Asia and Pacific booking agents, stating that Ciara would play a 30-45 minute show and would do up to 50 meet-and-greets after each performance.
He was considering taking legal action against Sin City.
Refunds would be offered to ticket holders, Peilua said.
