The opening date of Weeknd’s “After Hours Til Dawn” stadium tour has been postponed due to a nationwide outage at Rogers Wireless, one of Canada’s largest telephone networks, that devastated the country throughout Friday.
The fact that the tour was set to open at the Rogers Center (formerly the Skydome), the largest venue in Toronto, Weeknd’s hometown, was a painfully ironic twist. It is a cashless venue and all ticket, food, drink and merchandise sales are tied to the wireless network.
In a message to fans posted to his Instagram Story, The Weeknd wrote: “I’m devastated and heartbroken. We’ve been at the venue all day, but because of the outrage over Rogers, it’s out of our hands. Operations and safety are compromised and I did my best. This one hurts the most and we’re going to make this show happen, but unfortunately not tonight. I know how long you’ve waited and how hard many of you worked to make it to the show and share this special moment with me. I can’t wait to see you all.”
A statement from tour promoter Live Nation said: “The Weeknd was on site and ready to play, but due to the nationwide outage of the Rogers network, the show scheduled for tonight at Rogers Center is being rescheduled due to venue operations and infrastructure are not possible until full availability is back. Please keep your ticket. Updates on a new date will follow shortly.”
We regret to inform you that The Weeknd tour’s stop at Rogers Center has been postponed due to service disruptions affecting the venue’s operations. A new show date will be announced as soon as possible and the tickets will be considered.
We understand how disappointing this is and apologize for the inconvenience. pic.twitter.com/Et073wz0WZ
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) July 8, 2022
The outage, which began around 4:30 a.m. ET, highlighted just how much modern society relies on cellular coverage: Across the country, government and banking systems, parking lots and countless other businesses were unable to process transactions. Restaurants have been forced to serve cash only. Cafes and all shops offering free WiFi were full.
Sources tell Variety that the delay in the announcement, which came around the time the doors were due to open and fans had been waiting outside for hours, was because Weeknd’s team was trying to figure out a way to get the show on by latest possible time to list minute.
As of Friday afternoon, Rogers had no estimate of when the outage would be fixed, according to Rogers senior vice president of access networks and operations Kye Prigg on CBC’s Power & Politics.
“I don’t want to say if it’s going to be fully online today or not, but we’re working very, very hard to make sure we get everything up and running as soon as possible,” he said. “We are coming very close to understanding the root cause of the outage. And we are taking action together with our network providers to rectify the situation.
“We don’t understand why the different levels of redundancy we’re building across the network from coast to coast haven’t worked,” he added.
While anyone not in Canada might think the postponement was an overreaction, the outage, which began around 4:30 a.m. ET and affected the entire country, has highlighted just how much modern society relies on cellular coverage: Im Across the country, government and banking systems, parking lots, and countless other businesses were unable to process electronic transactions. Restaurants have been forced to serve cash only; Cafes and all shops offering free WiFi were full. The scale of the disruption is truly alarming and a sobering reminder of what would happen in the event of a cyber attack.
In fact, just a month before the outage, Canadian Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino said the country’s government was on “high alert” for cyberattacks by Russia and others in the wake of increasingly hostile international relations marred by the war in Ukraine were caused.
“I cannot stress enough how important it is that in the current geopolitical environment that we find ourselves in, we remain very vigilant against potential attacks from hostile state actors like Russia,” Mendicino said during an appearance in the country’s Commons House of Representatives. Public Safety Committee. He described these attacks as possibly taking the form of cyberattacks and ransomware “aimed at identifying potentially valuable targets for Canadian interests such as critical infrastructure, but also for sub-national targets, different levels of government and different economic sectors”.
As The Weeknd notes in its message, the venue – which is ironically sponsored by and named after Rogers, the wireless company suffering from the outage – is so thoroughly wired that it would have been unsafe to hold the show in those conditions. The Rogers Center – formerly known as the Skydome – is a cashless venue and all transactions rely on Wi-Fi, except for fans who have their tickets saved in Apple Wallet or other non-Wi-Fi apps.
Just a month before the concert, Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the country’s government was on “high alert” for cyberattacks by Russia and others in the wake of increasingly hostile international relations caused by the war in Ukraine .
“I cannot stress enough how important it is that in the current geopolitical environment that we find ourselves in, we remain very vigilant against potential attacks from hostile state actors like Russia,” Mendicino said during an appearance in the country’s Commons House of Representatives. Public Safety Committee.
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