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Ice Spice has apologized to fans after facing backlash for arriving 25 minutes late for her headlining act at Australia's Wildlands Festival in Brisbane on New Year's Eve. The Bronx rapper spent the New Year period in Australia, where she was booked to perform at the Beyond the Valley festival in Victoria and three legs of the Wildlands Festival in Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.
The Brisbane leg of the Wildlands Festival took place just a day before Ice Spice's birthday. She was one of the event's headliners, scheduled to perform between 10.30 and 11 pm. However, she was 25 minutes late and reportedly didn't appear on stage until 10.55 pm.
Although she was given an extra minute, the 25-year-old rapper could perform only two songs: Deli and Princess Diana. At 11.01, her microphone was disconnected while she was singing In Ha Mood.
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On Saturday, January 4, the Bronx rapper performed at the Perth leg of the festival. As per local radio Youth Jam's report, she addressed the situation during her set, saying:
“I’m sorry guys, surely y’all can forgive me. It was my birthday and it takes a long time to look like a Barbie.”
The statement acted as the segue to her next song, Barbie World.
Australian podcaster Brenton Larney criticized Ice Spice for her delay at the Wildlands Festival
Australian podcaster Brenton Larney was one of the attendees of the Brisbane wing of the Wildlands Festival on December 31. In an interview with The Guardian, he talked about the crowd's mood while they waited for Ice Spice to appear on stage for nearly 30 minutes.
"At 11.01pm – they gave her an extra minute … – they cut the mic and you heard the collective sigh from the crowd. They’d been waiting for a while and they get two songs?" he said.
"So that was a bit ridiculous and it was just really disrespectful how she walked off, she was laughing they tried to give her flowers for her birthday and she just shrugged them off."
Larney concluded by opining that Ice Spice seemingly "didn't want to be there."
"It was just really disrespectful to see, especially with all the cancellations and stuff we’ve had in the Australian music scene... It didn’t help," he said.
Another attendee, Mia Sims from the Gold Coast, criticized the rapper for her delay on New Year's Eve. In an interview with The Guardian, she explained that fans had already been waiting for over 30 minutes before Ice Spice's set to get better seats in the mosh pit.
Therefore, they were already squeezed together for almost an hour before she arrived. Despite performing for six minutes, she didn't even perform her popular songs, as per Sims. She also expected the Bronx rapper to apologize for the delay on social media. However, it never came.
Wildlands Festival, meanwhile, apologized for the debacle on Instagram, writing:
"We understand that Ice Spice’s delayed arrival caused some frustration. Managing a stacked festival means that we have to be extremely firm with scheduled set times. We had a strict curfew of 12:30 and needed to ensure that Chase & Status went on stage on time so you could all enjoy the NYE Countdown!"
Ice Spice was one of the three headlining acts at Adelaide on New Year's Eve. Other headliners included Fisher (OZ) and Chase & Status.
