*UPDATE*

Bizzy Bone will now perform a solo set replacing Tha Dogg Pound and Lady Of Rage. See the updated timetable below. 

Original Report

The promoters of The Block Party Festival have announced that Tha Dogg Pound and Lady Of Rage will no longer be performing at the hip-hop extravaganza being held in Auckland tonight.
 
The festival features some of the biggest acts in hip-hop, including Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Twista, Mobb Deep and DJ Quik, who will all play sets at the ASB Showgrounds.
 
Last night organisers of the festival issued a statement saying, “There’s nothing more painful than for us to be in this situation, after such a successful day today,” referring to a packed media conference in which reporters quizzed an all-star panel of hip-hop greats, including Bizzy Bone, DJ Quik and Twista.
 
Members of Tha Dogg Pound and Lady Of Rage were scheduled to arrive in New Zealand tomorrow morning but will no longer be coming due to visa paperwork still pending in Australia.
 
“Rest assured we did everything in our power to try convince the artists to still play the New Zealand show for you, but from their point of view it was not viable without confirmation of the five extra Australian dates.”
 
“Subsequently, as many of you may know Prodigy from Mobb Deep suffers from Sickle Cell disease, and his condition has made him unable to travel at this time. These are strict doctors orders. We can’t thank Havoc and Big Noyd enough for still coming our way to deliver the show. Our prayers are with Prodigy at this tough time.”
 
The organisers are still promising a night to remember and are making changes to the line-up, which is set to kick-off at 5:00pm and have this message for festival-goers:
 
“We are working on something very special to replace the DPG/Rage set, that was scheduled for 5.50pm.
 
“Staying true to our company values, if we can’t deliver 100 percent on a show, we offer a refund period to our loyal Talk Later fans. If you were only coming for DPG or Rage, feel free to use this link to request your refund: http://support.theticketfairy.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Refund request info:
- The request must be made BEFORE 3pm May 20th. After that time all tickets remain valid.
- You MUST include your ticket ‘Order ID’ number to have a valid refund request.
- Your ticket becomes invalid after the request is made.

The Block Party

Friday May 20th: ASB Showgrounds, Auckland (R18)
Tickets via TheTicketFairy