Kanye West’s St Petersburg concerts cancelled; refunds to open on 12 October

Kanye West’s planned concerts in St Petersburg, Russia, on 10 and 11 October will not go ahead, organizer Say Agency announced on 30 September. The shows, billed for Gazprom Arena, had remained in doubt after the venue said it had no signed rental agreement. Say Agency says ticket refunds will become available on 12 October, but has yet to publish the rules for obtaining them.

The rapper, also known as Ye, had been scheduled to perform on consecutive nights at the stadium. In its cancellation message, Say Agency said the concerts could not take place on the planned dates. It promised a separate statement on the status of the project and its future plans, without giving a reason for the decision or announcing replacement dates.

When will ticket refunds be available?

Say Agency said the option to seek a refund for purchased tickets would open on Monday, 12 October 2026. It said it would publish the rules and conditions later. The announcement therefore gives buyers a date to watch, but no published instructions yet for submitting a claim or confirming when money would be returned.

The question matters to buyers who have already spent money or tried to recover it during weeks of uncertainty. Fontanka reported that some tickets cost as much as 160,000 rubles and that some buyers had sought refunds before the final announcement. According to the St Petersburg outlet, the organizer had already approved refunds for seats in VIP boxes.

Why were the Gazprom Arena shows in doubt?

The dispute over the venue had been public since August. Gazprom Arena said on 24 August that it had not signed a rental agreement with Say Agency and therefore could not host the concerts. That position conflicted with the organizer’s insistence at the time that the events were still being prepared.

Say Agency said the arena had supplied a rental agreement for it to sign and disputed the venue’s public account. Fontanka reported that talks continued after the arena’s statement, but that a contract bearing both sides’ signatures had not been produced by early September. The record shows a disagreement over the booking; Say Agency’s cancellation notice does not say whether that disagreement ultimately caused the shows to fall through.

On 4 September, according to Fontanka, Say Agency published correspondence about preparations for the concerts. The material included letters from football club Zenit concerning use of the stadium, and showed discussion of dates, technical requirements and rental conditions. It did not include a lease signed by both the organizer and the venue. Correspondence about a possible event did not settle the question raised by the arena’s statement.

Another warning sign came on 18 September, when St Petersburg disappeared from the list of dates on Ye’s tour website. Fontanka reported that Say Agency nevertheless continued to say the concerts were not cancelled. The organizer’s 30 September announcement changed that position: it told buyers the shows would not happen on their scheduled dates.

What has Say Agency said about future plans?

Say Agency has promised a further statement about the project’s status and what it plans to do next. Its announcement did not name another venue, offer new dates or explain why the October performances could not proceed. The confirmed development is that the 10 and 11 October shows will not take place as scheduled; any future arrangement remains unannounced.

For ticket holders, the next concrete date supplied by the organizer is 12 October, when it says refunds will become available. The terms, method and timing of individual repayments remain to be set out. Buyers will need the promised follow-up statement to know how the organizer intends to handle their tickets and whether it proposes anything beyond refunds.