Fans and followers of Nicki Minaj were outraged on Sunday night when the "Anaconda" singer failed to show up on time and miss out on the hour long performance allotted for her during the Wireless Festival at Finsbury Park in London. Tired, restless and extremely disappointed by the star's no-show, the crowd booed and shouted disapproving remarks as the organizers of the said event scrambled to make things right.
Minaj was supposed to be scheduled to perform onstage from 7pm to 8pm that day, according to London Evening Standard. However, 40 minutes past the hour of seven saw no sign of the singer while her fans, with some who took time off from work and personal commitments just to see her perform, started growing agitated by her absence. As the crowd became increasingly unsettled, the organizers of the Wireless Festival released the first official update on Minaj's whereabouts and the future of the event via the big screen displayed on stage.
"Special announcement: we are told that she was due to be speeding down the M1 from Luton Airport as we speak but we have lost contact with her, we are hoping that she will be here soon," disclosed the organizers as the fans were left wondering whether their idol will be showing up anytime soon.
"We're assured Nicki Minaj is still on her way and will perform with David Guetta," the Wireless Festival organizers later on announced. They added, "He's on at 8.30 and she'll join him soon after." Minaj eventually arrived at the venue and joined Guetta. Explaining her tardiness, the reps of the rapper cited "travel issues" as the reason for the delay.
Prior to her appearance in the London show, Minaj was actually at Roskilde Festival in Denmark the night before. Presumably, the plan was for her to immediately fly to the Wireless Festival right after her gig but it appears that the singer's team and the organizers left too little window time between the two performances as well as failed to take into consideration potential fortuitous events. As luck would have it, unexpected occurrences peppered Minaj's journey to the Wireles Festival, thereby resulting in the debacle.
According to Irish Examiner, Minaj missed her flight from Denmark. To make matters worse, her eventual arrival in London was made excruciating due to heavy traffic in conjunctions 8 and 9 in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. The congestion was reportedly caused by a car fire - yet another unexpected turn of events that further pushed the singer way behind schedule. Needless to say, the legions of Minaj fans who showed up in the London event were left fuming. Here are some of their reactions shared via social media.
. @WirelessFest crowd waiting for @NICKIMINAJ ... she's supposedly on her way from the airport pic.twitter.com/WDVi4BHce9
— Nina Massey (@ninamasseyPA) July 5, 2015
@NICKIMINAJ It's not hard to turn up to work on time, I plan to do it tomorrow morning after waiting to see you! #Wireless #NickiMinaj — Alexandra Canham (@AlexandraCanham) July 5, 2015
): RT @YahooCelebUK: SOS!!!! Apparently Nicki Minaj missed her flight so is going to be on later than planned, ahh!! #wireless #livenation
— carson. (@CarsonZolanski) July 5, 2015
No Way! Nicki Minaj is missing #Wireless
Nicky Minaj is now over an hour late, and angry group of fans are trying to storm backstage. Drama at #Wireless. pic.twitter.com/lWE9EejZ0q — Joshua Fox (@joshua_fox) July 5, 2015