Comedy fans in the city were baffled to find out on Friday morning that veteran comedian Jerry Seinfeld wasn’t going to perform in Mumbai during the weekend. The shows were scheduled for March 14 and 15 at the National Sports Club of India.
A press release from the event managers Only Much Louder said: “Issues related to traffic and parking at the venue, which were brought to our attention only a couple of days ago, forced the cancellation of all artist travel arrangements pending a resolution of these logistical issues.”
Reports said that Jerry Seinfeld was all set to board his private jet to India on Friday morning but was told to put his travel plans on hold owing to delay in permissions from the police.
“But in spite of our best efforts to resolve these matters with the authorities quickly, which resulted in suitable alternate parking and traffic plans being arranged, this was not in time to reorganise the required artist travel logistics,” the press release said.
The Mumbai police, however, claims that even though the organisers applied at the last minute, the permission was granted. “We took only a day to grant them the permission. Some of the details were missing when they initially applied for an NOC (No Objection Certificate). Those were sought and subsequently the permission was given,” said a senior police officer from the traffic department.
The event management company claimed to have lost over $2 million on account of cancellation of the event. Many fans who shelled out between Rs.7,500 and Rs.12,000 wondered if the show didn’t actually sell enough tickets especially since the tickets were being given away at half price last week. Disappointed fans expressed their outrage on Twitter. The event managers maintained that the cancellation had nothing to do with ticket sales and added that the traffic and parking concerns were brought to their notice only this week.
They pointed fingers at a new provision of “parking licence” imposed by the Mumbai police this week after a controversy involving Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
“There was no such thing as a parking licence earlier. What you get in Mumbai and other cities is a Traffic NOC (No Objection Certificate), which is issued to you after the department that looks after all traffic-related issues is convinced that the show will not create any problems for citizens. We got this on Wednesday, March 5.”
The organisers have promised a full refund on tickets.
