Anyone hoping to see The Game at Raggamuffin Festival in Auckland on Saturday would have been disappointed as not only did the rapper not make it to the show, he didn’t even make it into the country after reportedly getting his countries confused and arriving instead in Australia.
Flying in from Dubai on Friday on his way to New Zealand, the rapper’s stay in Australia was very short as officers from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection turned him away after it turned out he had the wrong visa, reports the Australian Associated Press via New Zealand Herald.
Boarding a plane back to Los Angeles immediately, the news of what transpired took a little bit longer to be made clear.
With many ticket holders upset, and accusing the festival of intentionally failing to inform attendees of the rapper’s no show, Ragamuffin organisers then made a statement to Facebook clarifying the situation.
Organisers said they were in possession of a copy of The Game’s Visa, which was issued by New Zealand Immigration, but didn’t make it public for reasons of privacy. “The Game was 100 per cent approved to enter New Zealand. His management and I know this as fact,” Raggamuffin director Andrew McManus.
“We honestly believed The Game would honour his obligations to our festival and it was only when we had our people at the airport on Saturday to pick him up to play Raggamuffin IX did we find out he did not board the plane in Dubai. Statements to the contrary are simply not true.” Read the festival’s full statement below.
Not one to allow others to be the authors of his shame, The Game, real name Jayceon Terrell Taylor, took to social media to hit back saying “I didn’t miss my flight, we were denied entry once we landed at Customs,” although he conveniently left out the part of arriving in a different country.
Having had to cancel his Australian tour, as well as promise Ragamuffin ticket holders a 20 per cent discount to his September headline tour of New Zealand, you’d think the rapper might be a little upset. Not so judging from his recent Instagram post below, with Taylor more than happy to back in the city of angels and not dealing with Australian customs.
I can’t wait for this episode of Border Security.
As promoter of Raggamuffin IX we need to set the record regarding The Game straight:‘The Game’ was 100% approved to…
Posted by Raggamuffin Festival New Zealand on Saturday, February 20, 2016
