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Britney Spears halts Vancouver concert due to smoking

by Amy Judd | April 8, 2009 at 08:05 pm

2808 views | 28 Recommendations | 7 comments

Britney Spears halted her Vancouver concert Wednesday night and walked off stage after only four songs. She said it was too smokey in the arena for her to continue.

She finally returned after about 30 minutes.

An official posting on her website says:

We want to apologize to all the fans who attended our Vancouver show tonight for the brief pause in Britney's set. Crew members above the stage became ill due to a ventilation issue.

After The Pussycat Dolls opened her show at 7pm, the Circus performers started coming on at 8pm.

Britney first took the stage at 8:17pm after being introduced by a video of blogger Perez Hilton, and she appeared dressed as a sexy ringleader. However, at 8:36pm the lights on the stage went dark and stayed dark.

At 8:45pm, a voice comes over the loudspeaker:

“It’s become uncomfortable and unsafe for the performers, including Ms. Spears,” the voice says, eliciting big boos from the crowd. “The show will resume as soon as the air around the stage is clear.”

The fans just started to boo. They started chanting her name, and doing the wave in the darkness. At 9:05pm she appears back on stage and resumes the show.

As she takes her final bow at about 10:18pm, Britney walks off the stage and says 'don't smoke weed' and 'rock out with your c**ks out! Peace Motherf***ers!'

The crowd seemed to love it.

The Toxic performer, who doesn't even sing live at her shows, walked off stage after just four songs.

The concert stopped, the lights came on and a voice over the loud speaker said that the show would not go on if people continued to smoke around the edge of the stage.

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dylstar (not verified)

at 23:22 on April 8th, 2009

i was there - it was massive amounts of bad weed LOL. it actually stunk really bad and I saw her during the 30 min 'weed break' lying down in her pit with 2 paramedics... No one threw anything on the stage! All the fans chanted her name and did the wave for 30 min!

NotImpressed (not verified)

at 11:15 on April 9th, 2009

I was at the concert, in the very back row at the top, there was no smoke, not even a haze! (Smoke rises) I couldnt smell cigarettes or pot, and Ive been to some really smokey concerts. Cigarettes are not allowed to be smoked in GM place, we have a smoking ban. Her half ass effort to dance was pathetic. The pussycat dolls were great. During the 30 minute break fans booed and we had to entertain ourselves. She ruined the mood for the rest of the night for a lot of people. She's too overdramatic but when you make that kinda money I guess you're allowed to be. Her own pirotechnics were causing the smoke to rise! It was right below the technicians above! Ya.. blame Vancouver Brit... idiot.

Rachel Nixon

at 21:42 on April 8th, 2009

Having been to concerts in Vancouver I'm wondering whether it was *cigarette* smoke that Britney was objecting to?

car1edb

at 23:52 on April 8th, 2009

she did know Vancouver's in BC right? - where hotboxing a venue is standard ;)

Amy Judd

at 12:32 on April 9th, 2009

I've heard many comments like this actually, especially that the Pussy Cat Dolls were great and she wasn't nearly as good.

jazzyzazzy

at 14:17 on April 9th, 2009

Where has the vibrant energy gone.In the above video it looked more like a rehearsal than a energetic exciting perfomance. I teach dance and drama therefore I saw a lot of flaws in her act.Britney looked like she was doing a walkthrough. I hope she gets back her zest for performing live.