Three huge gigs from acclaimed American artist Janelle Monae at the Manchester International Festival have been cancelled - just six weeks before she was due to headline the 2023 event.
The singer, rapper and actress had been due to play three eagerly-anticipated shows inside the new £210mn Factory International arts centre in Manchester. She would have been the first major artist to play The Hall inside the arts venue on June 30, July 1 and July 2.
But an announcement was made on the MIF website on Friday afternoon to say the Janelle Monae shows are now "cancelled".
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They blame "scheduling conflicts" behind the cancellation and say the Grammy-nominated star is "unable to travel to Europe".
The statement on the MIF website said: "Due to scheduling conflicts, Janelle Monae is unable to travel to Europe. Therefore, the shows at MIF23 have been cancelled. "
"All ticket holders will be automatically refunded in full over the next 14 days. We apologise for any inconvenience."
The biennial arts festival runs from June 29 to July 16 at venues across the city. Festival bosses say there will be no further artist announcements.
They have pointed to the "diverse mix of music programming" at this year's event.
The arts festival of world premiere works returns this year with art exclusives from the likes of Maxine Peake, Juan Mata and Yayoi Kusama.
A spokesman for MIF said: "The music programme at MIF23 remains a rich and diverse programme, and includes Alison Goldfrapp (14 July) making a welcome return to the Festival with music from her first solo foray, and John Grant and the Richard Hawley band (11 July) debut their new show singing the songs of pop and country legend Patsy Cline and Grammy-award winning Angélique Kidjo (4 July) performing her first show in Manchester in ten years with guest appearances from some fantastic emerging local talent."
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