On Saturday, Lil Durk was out in Arizona to perform for a live crowd. According to reports, his show was cut short because of what was thought to be the sound of gunfire ringing out in the venue.
The Smurkchella organizers are claiming shots were not fired inside the space and no one was hit by bullets. Apparently, the noise that caused the commotion at Phoenix’s Celebrity Theatre was a microphone hitting the ground.
“When that noise comes through the PA system, it’s pretty jarring. So that loud noise caused people to panic, and people did scurry quite rapidly,” said Andrew Birgensmith, Celebrity Theatre general manager.
Between 7,000-10,000 people attended Durk’s Smurkchella concert. A few attendees apparently suffered non-life-threatening injuries as a result of trying to flee the scene after the commotion. Phoenix police officers did arrive at the location.
Lil Durk took to Instagram to comment on the gun-related reports connected to his name. He wrote, “They make up rumors when you lit. Last night I got paid 250k check the pics. P.S. we all got plaques together @poohshiesty @coileray.”
The Smurkchella Instagram page posted:
10K people showed up and got the opportunity to see the hottest artist in the game perform! 4 black men did that don’t allow negative media propaganda and rhetoric to mislead you! There was no shootings inside of @smurkchella! Yes, some things did go unplanned! It’s a concert, the first concert on the heels of a pandemic! We pushed for weeks to try to let as many people safely in as we could to experience this festival! Was that a mistake? In hindsight, maybe, but we wanted to do that for all you who wanted to be at Smurkchella, the people that matter the FANS! We tried to get more security, for weeks because we knew what was on the horizon! We were ensured prior that security was in place and would have everything under control so we could enjoy the show safe and responsible, but somethings were out of our control! Special S/O to Rockstar Enterprises LLC @ghostthegreat for the security without them it would’ve been no show at all! People were excited, nonetheless, it was a great experience that did not get shut down or end early! You got the chance to see @lildurk @coileray @poohshiesty perform their biggest songs together for the first time all on one stage! That’s history!!!!!!!!! Thank you to everybody that’s reached out and showed love support and appreciation! It’s doesn’t go unnoticed to all the people who flew in and came out, we thank all of you. Some things will get rectified in the upcoming days as far as the bottle service goes, but you can’t tell me it wasn’t a great event!!!!! All love, and thank you to all the artist that performed! @lildurk you the [goat emoji] don’t let them try to dim your light EVER! [blue heart emoji] @heat0fthem0ment @eleliottt @chianticlay @savagesznmedia
Celebrity Theatre’s Instagram page also posted a note addressing the incident on Saturday:
LIL DURK: SMURKCHELLA GUESTS
Celebrity Theatre was not the promoter for the last night’s Smurkchella event. Celebrity Theatre was simply the rental venue. We were not involved in the logistical coordination of the event whatsoever. While we regret any inconveniences associated with the event, all complaints, constructive criticism, and refund requests should be sent to the promoter at smurkchella@gmail.com.
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