Crash Causes Michael To Cancel Prague

Nobody was hurt and this time George Michael wasn’t driving but a road crash involving one of the trucks carrying his concert equipment forced him to cancel his June 2nd performance in Prague.

On the day of the show, national daily Idnes reported it was impossible to find a replacement for the video wall and other stage parts that were trapped in the lorry.

Robert Porkert from show promoter Interkoncerts says the performance at Strahov Stadium was called off a little after 10 a.m., when it became obvious the damaged truck – even if was righted immediately – was too far away along the 870-mile stretch from Bucharest to Prague.

The accident happened on the Romanian side of the border, a day after Michael played Bucharest May 31st.

The Balkan and central European run began at the 50,000-capacity Budapest Nepstadion May 23rd, moving on to Bratislava Inter Football Stadium May 25th.

Ticket sales were said to be a little down on what had been expected, certainly short of the almost instant sellout business Michael did in Western Europe last autumn.

In Sofia, a charity bash for the Bulgarian nurses imprisoned in Libya for the past eight years pulled nearly 20,000 to the 30,000-capacity Lokomotiv Stadium May 28th.

"It was the first show with such a massive production to ever take place in Bulgaria," said Martin Stoyanov of promoter Joker Media after the gig made front-page stories in half a dozen of the country’s national papers.

Michael made a similar impact in Romania, where Andreea Dobrica of Modus Production reported sales of a little more than 30,000 in the 45,000-capacity National Stadium in Bucharest.

She said it’s the biggest production ever seen in Romania and Michael held the audience spellbound.

Porkert is trying to reschedule the Prague Strahov show but holds out little hope as both the act and Interkoncerts have busy summers ahead of them.