SAN FRANCISCO (CelebrityAccess) The XO Festival is still on the books for this weekend for the Bay Area, although it’s been having its share of bad press.
The festival, which touts about 100 acts, is expected to take place at Contra Costa Event Park in Antioch, Calif., with acts like Ludacris, T.I., and Mistah F.A.B., with three-day tickets ranging from $375 to $2,495. The festival first drew the attention of Amplify Magazine, then the San Francisco Chronicle because something about it just doesn’t seem kosher.
The Chronicle said it reached out to the performers with Magic! dropping from the bill in June without comment and a representative for Vanilla Ice telling the paper, “We are requesting full payment for Vanilla Ice before he gets on a plane.”
Bob Rosenberg of the band Will to Power has pulled his band out of the lineup saying on social media, “I saw red flags when my tour manager first told me about it … The only info I could find on the internet was the XO website which sounded like Fyre Fest.”
Trinere V. Farrington has also dropped out, saying, “I want to SINCERELY APOLOGIZE to all my fans that have purchased tickets for this weekends SCAM XOXO concert in Antioch California July 13-14th.”
Ludacris is also scheduled to perform elsewhere and the festival is not on his itinerary, but the organizers insist he will be there.
“Ludacris is performing,” organizers tweeted. “His schedule on Facebook is wrong. He’s performing for us on Saturday at 4pm and later that evening in SoCal. his (sic) tour manager is trying to get it fixed. We are waiting for his post which should be out today or tomorrow.”
It should be noted that the organizers’ first Twitter account got suspended.
Carmen Electra was expected to host the event but was “quietly removed from the lineup.”
Mistah F.A.B. told the Chronicle he received payment.
“As far as I know, the show is set to go on,” he said. “I’ve done so much stuff in my career with so many ups and downs, I’m going to go in, get my money and get out.”
Meanwhile, organizer Sami Habib of World Class Entertainment was apparently arrested in February for real estate fraud in Fremont.
