The Game Misses New Zealand Festival, Cancels Australian Dates Due To Visa Mixup

AUCKLAND, NZ (CelebrityAccess) — Los Angeles-based rapper The Game missed a performance at New Zealand's Raggamuffin music festival on Saturday over apparent visa issues.

According to the New Zealand Herald, festival organizers reported that The Game (real name Jayceon Terrell Taylor) missed a flight out of Dubai and flew home to Los Angeles instead of taking a later flight to Auckland.

However, The Game claimed that he was denied entry after landing in Australia. "I didn't miss my flight, we were denied entry once we landed at Customs," The Game said via Instagram.

Raggamuffin organizers later confirmed that The Game had a valid Visa to enter New Zealand but said they could not publicly release it due to privacy concerns.

"His entry to Australia was given as ‘intent to refuse’ which is exactly the same letter given to Ghostface Killah from Wu-Tang Clan. On approaching the Immigration Department in Australia, they reviewed Ghostface Killah and approved his visa and he is on his way to Australia tonight with the other members of Wu-Tang. In the case of ‘The Game’ the process to provide additional support information for entry into Australia was going to take longer due to the number of band members needing to be processed so the best decision was for him to come and play at Raggamuffin in New Zealand and then re-schedule Australia.

"After making major deposits to his agent ICM and them buying Dubai to Auckland flights, it made perfect sense for The Game to come to Auckland, play Raggamuffin IX and then return at a later date for an Australian tour … which is what ICM and Raggamuffin were negotiating over the past few days. We honestly believed ‘The Game’ would honour his obligations to our festival and it was only when we had our people at the airport on Saturday to pick him up to play Raggamuffin IX did we find out he did not board the plane in Dubai. Statements to the contrary are simply not true," Raggamuffin promoter Andrew McManus wrote on Facebook.

Regardless of which version of the story is correct, The Game cancelled the Australian leg of his Documentary 2 tour. – Staff Writers