The city’s reputation continues to suffer from last-minute concert postponements and cancellations.
Fans of singer Clairo recently received the disappointing news that her Toronto tour dates were being postponed, less than two minutes after the doors opened at Massey Hall on Oct. 23, which was meant to be the first of three shows.
“I know this is disappointing to everyone who bought tickets to see me play, but I’m struggling with extreme exhaustion and have been advised to go home until our Boston shows,” Clairo posted to X.
This was simply the latest of numerous examples of artists cancelling or postponing shows in Toronto on short notice. The phenomenon has occurred so frequently that fans have begun calling Toronto “cursed” when it comes to concerts.
Several other incidents have occurred this past year alone. R&B singer Kehlani’s concert on Sept. 11 was canceled a few hours prior for reasons similar to Clairo’s. Jhené Aiko’s concert in July was postponed due to production issues despite her being “here and ready” at the venue with her team. SZA’s show in Oct. 2023 was ultimately cancelled in December after being indefinitely postponed for two months.
Fans in Montreal have frequently committed to traveling to Toronto to avoid missing their favourite artists whose tours rarely stop in other Canadian cities.
“It’s really annoying because most of the time, artists have one concert in the entire country and don’t realize that we’re literally the second biggest country in the world,” said Daniela Orrego, a second-year economics major at Concordia. “Going to Toronto is expensive; you have to consider travelling and hotel fees on top of the ticket.”
The Toronto curse comes with negative financial repercussions for concertgoers from Montreal, especially in the case of same-day postponements. First-year Concordia journalism student Dusty Goldberg was supposed to go to Toronto to see Clairo but instead found himself struggling to get his accommodations refunded before his scheduled departure.
“When I contacted VIA Rail about getting a refund for my $200 train tickets, they offered me seven dollars. I’m a full-time student with a part-time job, so I don’t really have the cash to take the loss and then go back to Toronto in December to see her,” Goldberg explained.
“To top it off, [Ticketmaster] does not offer refunds unless the concert is officially cancelled,” added second-year human relations major Rose Beaubrun, who traveled for Jhené Aiko’s now-postponed concert.
The show’s new date wound up being less convenient for her in terms of both personal schedule and finances.
“It got pushed to Nov. 29, right before finals. What was supposed to be a fun summer outing now just feels like more stress added to my already packed academic schedule. Accommodation prices are higher now than they would’ve been in the summer because of the holidays,” she said.
Between the high travel costs and the untimeliness of artists’ cancellation notices, the risk has essentially outrun the reward for Toronto shows, tainting the city’s reputation for many concertgoers.
“Getting a refund is almost impossible, and they always announce cancellations last minute, right when everyone’s already made the trip. Toronto just can’t be relied on for concerts,” said Beaubrun.
