'It ain't right': Jully Black says Hamilton gig was cancelled due to rain-soaked stage, unkept promises

Juno Award-winning R&B singer Jully Black cancelled a performance in Hamilton last Sunday night due to what she said were promises made but not kept by organizers and a rain-soaked stage.

Black was the headliner on day-two of the July 1 to 3 It's Your Festival 2023.

A video on social media shows Black on stage at one point. She told patrons, "We're excited to perform for you all. The weather has been what it's been. It's very, very wet … but what we're intending on doing is do as much as we can."

She asked the crowd, "Do you wanna stay?" and people responding by cheering and clapping.

"You know, I'm your girl, I'm born and raised Canadian and I've never had to cancel a show, not even for weather, so we're gonna do our best," Black said.

But in another video, an emotional Black is heard saying, "I feel like I'm gonna cry. My emotion is coming because so many Black artists go through this."

It's unclear how much time elapsed between the two videos or exactly what happened.

CBC Hamilton contacted Black for comment. Her manager Jason Reynold wrote back saying "Jully wasn't able to perform due to the ongoing rain and the stage not being covered. That's our official statement."

It's Your Festival promoter John Balogh described the rain that day as "torrential" saying "there was too much rain all day to contend with... There was nothing I could do beyond what I did." Balogh said Black was willing to perform if there was no water on the stage but there was too much rain to keep the floor dry. 

Balogh said "We'd love to have her back and I'll do everything I can on my end to make sure the stage is presentable in all aspects and all aspects of the show have been accomplished."

'Lack of consideration and respect for the artist'

Lisa Cooper Haas, a Hamilton resident who was at the event, said " there was a lack of consideration and respect for the artist."

According to Cooper Haas, any artist that takes time out of their schedule to come to a festival in Hamilton, or any city, should be treated with decency and respect. 

"This includes any of their equipment that the festival crew is responsible for setting up. Inclement weather is always a possibility for any festival and all electronics should be protected. Moreso, if it was in the contract, then it needed to be honoured," Cooper Haas said.

"A small request to have the stage mopped up after torrential downpour isn't such a terrible thing for an artist to ask for. This is a safety risk and if it were in a mall, there would be no hesitation for the request to have been met. I think consideration, respect and just common sense is what could have been done differently and should have been. These artists are brought in as a guest to our city and therefore should be treated in a respectful manner."

Black said in the second video that while she would take her shoes off and run in the rain, the amount of compromise that was expected was too much.

"When you're promised something in writing so you will show up, and we show up, and it's not even one-sixteenth of what they said, that's a problem," the singer said.

"I've been doing this 29 years and it just ain't right. It ain't right."

She accused the organizers of being "passive" and "not really showing much compassion to [her] and the band."

"They need to not treat us like we don't have value and integrity and dignity … and that man looked me in the face, I said you would not speak to a white man or artist the way you're speaking to me."

Balogh said he doesn't know who might have said that to Black.

It's Your Festival has been running for 54 years and promotes the city's culture, food, dance, art and more. The festival returned in 2023 after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

'A complete rain out' 

Vandana Verma, a volunteer board member of Hamilton Folk Arts Council, said Sunday was "a rainout," and that put a damper on the event that day.

"We had artists get ready to perform, and as they go to perform, it started raining. So, it was a complete rain out," she said.

Verma said while "Mother Nature needs to cooperate a little bit better," what transpired on Sunday has highlighted the need for more volunteers. 

"That's a big thing because we are all volunteer run. We have one paid person who is the administrative assistant. Everybody else is volunteering like I volunteer my time," she told CBC Hamilton.

Additionally, she said the bandshell at Gage Park needs to be fixed. 

"We need to either redo it and maybe … organize some sort of fundraiser or something because we've got a lot of people in Hamilton that can pull together to make this bandshell a little bit better so that there's a covering so that artists can perform.

"If the artist can perform, so there's like some sort of drainage and some sort of covering on this bandshell, that would be amazing. As a city, I think we need to work on somehow fixing that up and I'd be willing to work on any committee that wants to do a fundraising event for it," she added.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.