The upcoming “By The Summer in the City Festival,” which was set to take place at the end of the month, canceled the first of its two nights of concerts – the one that would have featured Sam Smith.
“Due to unforeseeable technical and logistical problems on May 31, the concerts of that evening (including Sam Smith) will not happen,” the event producers said in a statement. “The festival concerts of June 1 will continue as planned. Those who bought tickets are welcome to contact the company they bought the tickets from for a full refund. People who bought tickets for both days of the festival who want to keep the ticket for the second day will be refunded 25% of the ticket price or cancel it and get a full refund.”
The second, and now only, day of the festival features British singers Robbie Williams and Calum Scott, Dutch DJ Martin Garrix and Israeli singer Static.
The performers of the canceled day were Smith, Papa Roach and Nunu.
Shortly after the announcement, the Eventim website, where tickets for the event are for sale, removed the option to order tickets for both days and the first day. However, both Eventim and the festival’s official website still advertised Smith as a performer at the festival.
The Sam Smith concert, which had already sold out, was supposed to be a 90-minute performance of Smith’s new album Gloria, which was released in January. This was supposed to be his first time performing in Israel.
Sam Smith faced with BDS pressure to cancel concert
Following the announcement that Smith – who now identifies as being gender non-binary – would perform at the festival, a social media campaign was launched by Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) supporters urging them not to perform. The campaign, under #SamDon’tGo involved people urging Smith to cancel the concert, as well as a petition that was launched to convince them to do so.
According to N12, the reason Smith's day of the festival was canceled was that they canceled their involvement, but this report was unconfirmed.