Annual UC Irvine concert canceled after rapper Famous Dex jumped into the audience and students rushed the stage.
The annual Shocktoberfest concert held at UC Irvine’s Bren Event Center to kick off the basketball season was abruptly canceled Friday night after rapper Famous Dex leaped into the audience and students stormed the stage, officials said.
“University police on site declared it was a dangerous situation,” Tom Vasich, a spokesman for the campus said, “so they turned on the lights and canceled the rest of the show.”
“Concert goers left the arena in an orderly fashion,” Vasich said. “Two people were arrested for intoxication.”
A short while later, however, students outside the arena were flooding social media channels with tweets, photos and videos of a man in Dex’s vehicle waving a gun and threatening spectators jostling for a closer look.
After Dex and his crew sped off, UCI police issued a Zot alert that warned: “a male 25 yr, 5’11, was seen inside white vehicle…with a gun at Pereira & W. Peltason. Call 911 if vehicle seen.”
“In the coming days,” Vasich said, “there will be discussions on how to move forward with the popular annual campus event.”
Associated Students of UCI, which operates the Shocktoberfest event, was not immediately available for comment Saturday. But the organization later issued a statement.
“We are looking into the situation from all aspects to see if a partial refund could be granted,” said Dilraj Toor, student service vice president for the organization. “Our mid-liner, Famous Dex,” she said, “presented us with challenges that escalated out of our control.”
In any case, some of the 4,500 students who attended the show and witnessed the pandemonium have their minds made up.
“No. One. Book. Famous. Dex. Ever. Again,” one of them suggested in a tweet.
“Famous Dex said ---- Shockotberfest and gave UCI students glocktoberfest instead,” said another.
UPDATES:
1:40 p.m.: This article was updated with a statement from Associated Students of UCI.
This article was originally posted at 11:25 a.m.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
