(AllHipHop News) According to reports, The Game was set to headline the Raggamuffin Festival in Auckland, New Zealand on Saturday, but the Los Angeles native missed the event because he went to the wrong country. The New Zealand Herald writes that Game landed in Australia with the wrong visa and was forced to leave immediately.

[ALSO READ: Due To Visa Issues, The Game Will Not Perform In Australia]

The Game flew into Australia from Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Friday. The “Hate It Or Love It” rhymer was stopped by the country’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection, and he was told he must exit the island nation. Game then flew directly back to Los Angeles without stopping in New Zealand for the music festival on Saturday.

Festival organizers announced to the Raggamuffin crowd on Saturday afternoon that Game “missed his flight” from Dubai. The rapper then took to Instagram to post, “I didn’t miss my flight, we were denied entry once we landed at Customs.” However, Game did not mention that he was blocked from entering Australia which left the impression with some fans that he was turned away in New Zealand.

Local media outlets have since ran articles with headlines that read: “Raggamuffin rapper confused Australia for NZ,” “The Game Got Australia And New Zealand Confused And Missed His Appearance At Ragamuffin Festival,” and “Raggamuffin 2016: Rap artist The Game mistakes Australia for New Zealand.”

A promoter for the Raggamuffin Festival released a lengthy statement about the situation involving The Game. Read the Facebook post below.

As promoter of Raggamuffin IX we need to set the record regarding The Game straight:

‘The Game’ was 100% approved to enter New Zealand. His management and I know this as fact.
His entry to Australia was given as ‘intent to refuse’ which is exactly the same letter given to Ghostface Killah from Wu-Tang Clan. On approaching the Immigration Department in Australia, they reviewed Ghostface Killah and approved his visa and he is on his way to Australia tonight with the other members of Wu-Tang. In the case of ‘The Game’ the process to provide additional support information for entry into Australia was going to take longer due to the number of band members needing to be processed so the best decision was for him to come and play at Raggamuffin in New Zealand and then re-schedule Australia.

After making major deposits to his agent ICM and them buying Dubai to Auckland flights, it made perfect sense for The Game to come to Auckland, play Raggamuffin IX and then return at a later date for an Australian tour … which is what ICM and Raggamuffin were negotiating over the past few days. We honestly believed ‘The Game’ would honour his obligations to our festival and it was only when we had our people at the airport on Saturday to pick him up to play Raggamuffin IX did we find out he did not board the plane in Dubai. Statements to the contrary are simply not true.

At no point would we consider trying to swindle our faithful Raggamuffin family. The whole Raggamuffin team and myself personally are deeply disappointed by what happened yesterday and can only promise, if we can sort things out with ‘The Game’ and his management, we will do everything we can to make this up to all of his upset and disappointed fans.

Andrew McManus
Director
Raggamuffin New Zealand