Lil Wayne has been forced to pull out of a music festival in England this weekend after being refused entry into the UK.
The rap star was scheduled to headline the Strawberries & Creem festival in Cambridgeshire on Saturday night. It was billed as his first performance in the country in 14 years.
In a statement on Wednesday, promoters said Lil Wayne “has been refused entry to the UK directly by the Home Office in a last minute decision” and will be replaced by Ludacris. The festival promised fans a discount on tickets for next year’s event.
In a tweet, Strawberries & Creem organizers added: “In absence of any statement from Lil Wayne, we would like to apologize to everyone who was coming to see him perform.”
It’s likely that Lil Wayne was not allowed into the UK due to his criminal record. In 2010, he served eight months of a one-year sentence for a gun possession charge stemming from an arrest in 2007 in New York. He was sentenced in 2010 to 36 months of probation after pleading guilty to drug and weapons charges in Arizona.
Lil Wayne also pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon following a 2020 arrest in Florida. He was pardoned by U.S. president Donald Trump on his last full day in office.