The Drake-helmed History — a new concert venue on Queen Street East in collaboration with Live Nation — seems to be running fashionably late, with the first gigs scheduled to take place at the locale this month having been cancelled.
Initially launched back in June, the 2,500-capacity room now appears to have quietly cancelled its inaugural concerts. Baltimore pop-punk outfit All Time Low were supposed to be the first act to play on October 22, followed by Allan Rayman on October 23, as well as Rival Sons and Noah Kahan before the end of the month. All of these shows are now showing up as cancelled on Ticketmaster.
All Time Low issued an apology to their fans on Twitter, citing Ontario's COVID-19 capacity restrictions as the reason for the cancellation.
"To our Toronto fans — we're devastated to be writing another post like this but unfortunately the show on the 22nd has been cancelled," the band wrote. "We had anticipated Covid [sic] capacity restrictions in Ontario being lifted by now, but they are not and we are not able to hold an event of [sic] this big."
On Friday (October 8), the Ontario government announced that concerts and cinemas would return to 100 percent capacity, but details on the spaces to which this new policy applies are still murky. The press release says "select settings" and seems to specify large-scale concert venues as among those affected — but if History's cancellations are any indication, we might not be getting the full story here.
UPDATE (10/12 2:48 p.m. ET): A spokesperson for History has issued the following statement:
The recent announcement around easing of capacity limits pertains to seated concert venues only and does not apply to general admission venues like History and based on this, History is not yet able to operate. We are hopeful that restrictions will further ease in the coming weeks so we can get back to the concert experience we all know and love.
Some fans are speculating that COVID restrictions aren't the real reason these events have been cancelled, theorizing that the new venue isn't done yet. Rayman shared the news of his History show's cancellation back on September 30, tweeting a screenshot of an email — presumably from someone at the venue — that says they will "definitely not be open in October."
As of press time, November's performances at History still appear to be going on as scheduled, beginning with Passenger on November 1.
See Friday's tweet from All Time Low — published just hours before the Ontario government's full capacity announcement — and Rayman's receipts below.
Initially launched back in June, the 2,500-capacity room now appears to have quietly cancelled its inaugural concerts. Baltimore pop-punk outfit All Time Low were supposed to be the first act to play on October 22, followed by Allan Rayman on October 23, as well as Rival Sons and Noah Kahan before the end of the month. All of these shows are now showing up as cancelled on Ticketmaster.
All Time Low issued an apology to their fans on Twitter, citing Ontario's COVID-19 capacity restrictions as the reason for the cancellation.
"To our Toronto fans — we're devastated to be writing another post like this but unfortunately the show on the 22nd has been cancelled," the band wrote. "We had anticipated Covid [sic] capacity restrictions in Ontario being lifted by now, but they are not and we are not able to hold an event of [sic] this big."
On Friday (October 8), the Ontario government announced that concerts and cinemas would return to 100 percent capacity, but details on the spaces to which this new policy applies are still murky. The press release says "select settings" and seems to specify large-scale concert venues as among those affected — but if History's cancellations are any indication, we might not be getting the full story here.
UPDATE (10/12 2:48 p.m. ET): A spokesperson for History has issued the following statement:
The recent announcement around easing of capacity limits pertains to seated concert venues only and does not apply to general admission venues like History and based on this, History is not yet able to operate. We are hopeful that restrictions will further ease in the coming weeks so we can get back to the concert experience we all know and love.
Some fans are speculating that COVID restrictions aren't the real reason these events have been cancelled, theorizing that the new venue isn't done yet. Rayman shared the news of his History show's cancellation back on September 30, tweeting a screenshot of an email — presumably from someone at the venue — that says they will "definitely not be open in October."
As of press time, November's performances at History still appear to be going on as scheduled, beginning with Passenger on November 1.
See Friday's tweet from All Time Low — published just hours before the Ontario government's full capacity announcement — and Rayman's receipts below.