Organizers behind Thunder Bay’s Wake the Big Music Pageant have issued an apology after 2026 headliner Flo Rida used alcohol bottles as props throughout his Saturday (September 12) efficiency on the sober occasion.
“The Wake the Big group wish to apologize and acknowledge the hurt performed by final night time’s Flo Rida efficiency,” organizers wrote in an announcement posted to social media yesterday (September 13). “The props used weren’t authorised by organizers, and we clearly communicated to the artist’s group that this was a sober occasion and that alcohol will not be permitted on our stage.”
“Our group shares within the damage and disappointment that many individuals really feel in the present day, and we need to guarantee you that this efficiency doesn’t align with the values of Wake the Big or Northern Nishnawbe Schooling Council,” they continued. “We take duty for reserving the artist, and we are going to take the teachings realized from this expertise to make sure our core values will likely be on the forefront in selecting artists sooner or later.”
Native resident Esther Maud, who attended the occasion to point out her help for the group — in addition to for her son and his youth drum group, Charging Thunder, which opened the present — instructed the CBC that she was appreciative of the pageant’s efforts, however stated Wake the Big’s apology left one thing to be desired, particularly for the reason that efficiency was “actually heavy and really triggering for lots of people.”
Maud, who’s going into her sixth yr of sobriety from alcohol, left shortly after Flo Rida carried out his third tune, as an increasing number of alcohol bottles saved showing on stage through the alcohol- and drug-free occasion. “I simply went in considering and being excited that I get to see somebody in person who I form of grew up listening to,” she defined. “So it did not even daybreak on me what he represents, and what he sings and places into his music in any respect.”
Learn Wake the Big’s full assertion, shared to Fb, beneath. The fest will go on hiatus subsequent yr on account of upgrades to the Thunder Bay waterfront.
The Wake the Big group wish to apologize and acknowledge the hurt performed by final night time’s Flo Rida efficiency. The props used weren’t authorised by organizers, and we clearly communicated to the artist’s group that this was a sober occasion and that alcohol will not be permitted on our stage.
Our group shares within the damage and disappointment that many individuals really feel in the present day, and we need to guarantee you that this efficiency doesn’t align with the values of Wake the Big or Northern Nishnawbe Schooling Council. We take duty for reserving the artist, and we are going to take the teachings realized from this expertise to make sure our core values will likely be on the forefront in selecting artists sooner or later.
Wake the Big is proud to be a sober occasion. The imaginative and prescient for the motion and the pageant is to create consciousness for a protected and inclusive atmosphere for Indigenous college students.