Nightwish: Toronto, Montreal and Philadelphia shows canceled due to visa problems
Added Wednesday, September 15, 2004 Because of problems with the band and crew visas, Nightwish had to cancel three shows from their North American Tour. The band announced that the rest of the tour will be performed as scheduled.
The band and the manager posted two statements about the canceled shows.
Nightwish statement: "Our US Visa applications were filed early enough at the end of March 2004, so the U.S. Immigration Office is the one responsible for not being able to handle these applications within this 4, 5 months of time. There was never anything we could have done but wish for some co-operation from their side. The result is as seen. We are very sorry for this and we understand that many of you are pissed. So are we. Big time. Naturally we will do everything we can to make this up and as soon as possible. The rest of the US shows will happen as scheduled. Wishing you all the best, Tuomas Holopainen & Nightwish".
Nightwish's Manager statement: "The band COULD have done the shows in Canada, because we would not need Visas/Working Permits to Canada, since the band do have a second set of passports. However, since these second passports are NOT valid to enter to USA, even as a tourist, because they lack certain barcodes etc. which the US customs officials require in order to enter the country. So, after doing these two shows in Canada, the band would have had to fly BACK to Finland and wait for the Visas from the US Embassy (they require that each & every person must come over to the Embassy to pick up his/her Visa/Passport. So doing the tour this way would have meant that about three or four shows in the US would have been cancelled, not to forget that we would have had to buy an extra set of international flights for 17 persons, which would have been very expensive, since these flights would have been booked in the last minute. So all in all, as disappointing it was to the Canadian fans and the band too, we just had to cancel the first three shows of the tour instead of flying overseas TWO times, losing even more money, maybe even losing the US Visas too (if we would have not gotten the suitable return flights back from Montreal in time) and not to cancel those four shows in the US, which would have made our routing as a nightmare. In a situation like this there is no easy solution, you just have to take the one with the smallest damage, and this time it was the Canadian NW fans who had to suffer because of this, for which we all are truly, truly sorry about.
We are trying to reschedule the Canadian shows for the latter part of 2004, maybe even adding a second one to Montreal. Stay tuned."
The upcoming dates for the Once Upon A Tour 2004-2005 are the following:
Oct 13 - Hamburg, Germany @ Color Line Arena Oct 15 - Leipzig, Germany @ Arena Oct 16 - Erfurt, Germany @ Thüringenhalle Oct 19 - Cologne, Germany @ Palladium Oct 20 - Berlin, Germany @ Arena Oct 22 - Nürnberg, Germany @ Arena Oct 23 - Munich, Germany @ Zenith Oct 25 - Vienna, Austria @ Gasometer Oct 26 - Budapest, Hungary @ Petofi Hall Oct 28 - Milano, Italy @ Mazda Palace Oct 30 - Basel, Switzerland @ St. Jakob Arena Nov 01 - Lyon, France @ Transbordeur Nov 04 - Madrid, Spain @ Aqualung Nov 05 - Barcelona, Spain @ Razamatazz 1 Nov 07 - Brussels, Belgium @ Metal Female Voices II Nov 08 - Amsterdam, Netherland @ Paradiso Nov 19 - Bucharest, Romania @ Palace Hall Nov 21 - Paris, France @ Zenith Nov 27 - Buenos Aires, Argentina @ Obras Sanitarias Nov 28 - Campinas, Brazil @ TBA Nov 30 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil @ Canecao Dec 02 - Porto Alegre, Brazil @ Opiniao Dec 03 - Belo Horizonte, Brazil @ Marista Dec 04 - Sao Paulo, Brazil @ Via Funchal Dec 10 - Quito, Equador @ Plaza De Toros Quito Dec 12 - Mexico City, Mexico @ Circo Volador Dec 13 - Mexico City, Mexico @ Circo Volador Dec 15 - Montreal, Canada @ Metropolis Dec 18 - Toronto, Canada @ Opera House Dec 26 - Helsinki, Finland @ Ice-Hall Dec 28 - Oberhausen, Germany @ On A Dark Winter's Night Festival
Because of problems with the band and crew visas, 