Dave Chappelle was among the many frustrated attendees at Lauryn Hill’s Diaspora Calling! Festival in England, where the headlining set from the Fugees was cut short after an hour.
In new footage from the Aug. 7 event, the comedian reacted to Hill and
Wyclef Jean’s microphones being disabled as they attempted to address the crowd in regard to the noise ordinance. “You’re fucking up history,” Chappelle said. “You turned off the mic on Martin Luther King … Man, y’all fucked up, I’ll never forget this. Tell them, whoever’s in charge.”
Hill recruited Chappelle to host Diaspora Calling. He appeared on the billing alongside Erykah Badu, YG Marley, Giggs, Fireboy DML, and Zion Marley. Hill and Jean took the stage at 10 p.m. BST to begin their set celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Fugees’ second album, The Score. Their late start only gave them an hour on stage at at Milton Keynes National Bowl.
At the end of the show, a message appeared on screen, reading, “THANK YOU EVERYONE. We’re sorry for the abrupt finish. As part of our license we are legally required to finish the show at 11pm and cannot continue beyond this time.”
In a longer post shared on social media Hill expressed hopes to make it up to the crowd and the special guests who weren’t able to make it onto the stage. “To the surprise guests who came ready to rock with us but didn’t get their moment because we hit curfew… shhhhh,” she wrote. “We’re going to have to do this again and make sure the audience gets all that we had planned for them.”
She added, “This was our first time doing a festival of this size, and the learning curve was important. Every lesson, challenge and victory will be carried forward into the next time we come together. This was never just about one day. Diaspora Calling! is a gathering to celebrate the collective power, passion, innovation, solutions, beauty and creativity that exists within us across the diaspora.”
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