Cancelled Rod Stewart show won’t be rescheduled, refunds offered to all

Rod Stewart fans won’t get another chance to see the singer perform in Saskatoon anytime soon, but they’ll get a full refund.

The 78-year-old British singer had to cancel a performance at SaskTel Centre on Saturday after suffering a vocal cord injury during his warmup just prior to taking the stage. He was treated by an on-call doctor and departed Saskatoon the following morning.

The cancellation marked the second time in 11 months that Stewart had to cancel a concert in Saskatoon. The performance in 2022 failed to proceed due to production issues.

On Monday afternoon, SaskTel Centre shared a statement explaining that the show can’t be rescheduled, but all ticket holders will receive a full refund.

“No action is required to receive your refund,” the venue wrote. “Refunds are processed to the original method of payment used at the time of purchase.”

SaskTel Centre noted a couple of cases which may make refunds tricky.

“Ticketmaster cannot issue a refund to a different credit or debit card. If your credit card or debit card number has changed but is for the same account (e.g., a new card has been issued for the same account), the refund will be processed to that account,” the venue noted.

“Recipients of any transferred tickets will not receive the refund, because the transfer recipient did not purchase tickets directly from Ticketmaster. If you purchased a resale ticket from some other source (StubHub, fan-to-fan), and that ticket was then transferred to you, you will need to reach out to your original point of purchase for a refund.”

SaskTel Centre thanked fans for their “patience and understanding” after the cancellation, and wished Stewart a speedy recovery.

Scott Ford, SaskTel Centre’s executive director, said they knew about the health issues in advance, but believed the show would still go ahead as planned.

“We were alerted earlier in the day that there were some vocal cord problems, but the original prognosis was he was going to continue with the show, but later in the day it just got worse,” Ford explained.

“Rod Stewart was trying to be a trooper, but he couldn’t sing.”

Ford said a doctor was called to the show to see what could be done, but ultimately the choice was made to cancel the performance.

“His voice wasn’t there, and it wouldn’t have been a show anybody would enjoy, so the decision was made to cancel the show,” Ford said. “It’s unfortunate, but he’s a human being and this happens occasionally.”

According to Ford, the show marked the first time in the history of SaskTel Centre that a performance was cancelled while ticket holders were already in the building.

–With files from Shane Clausing