Arab-American YouTuber Adam Saleh has gone on another rant, this time directed at RedFestDXB organisers.
The 23-year-old, who recently made headlines after he was removed from a Delta Airlines flight, was set to appear at Dubai Media City Amphitheatre on February 10, the second day of the annual music festival. He shared a bill with Demi Lovato, Tove Lo, Sean Paul, G-Eazy and others.
However, Saleh alleged that when the event was postponed a day due to bad weather, the RedFestDXB organisers wouldn’t get back to him with specifics regarding rescheduling his appearance. He added that “just one person” from the RedFestDXB team looked down on him for being a vlogger.
“The event organisers of RedFest were so rude. So rude to my management. They would hang up while my management was calling them. If they didn’t want me there, they could have just told me that in the first place,” Saleh said in a video, which was titled “Update: I Have RESPECT for Myself” and clocked in at just over nine minutes.
“I don’t feel wanted, I feel really left out. I will not be performing even if they do agree to me right now,” said Saleh.
“I’m not at the same level as Demi Lovato or Sean Paul and G-Eazy. They’re on another league. But why get me to promote it all over YouTube, all over my social media for the world and then to just look down at me?”
Organisers responded saying the pressure of rescheduling the event led to some cancellations.
“We wanted to ensure the artists finished on stage by around 8pm so parents can bring their kids and be home ready for school the next day,” they said in a statement emailed to tabloid!.
“As a result we had no option than to limit some of the appearances from our special guests including Adam Saleh to ensure all artists performing had time to prepare their full production and sound checks. We would have loved to have had Adam appear at the festival but due to the rescheduling this wasn’t possible.”
UPDATE: Saleh's management team reached out to tabloid! with the following statement on Sunday night. RedFestDXB organisers issued no further comments at time of writing.
"We (Media Mix Group) are the management team that Adam refers to in his vlog and organisers of his recent Middle East Tour which included performing at RedFest on Friday 3rd February. A lot of time and effort had gone into ensuring Adam’s Middle East tour was co-ordinated to end in Dubai due to his performance at RedFestDXB. We also cancelled our lucrative Kuwait show, and meet & greet in Dubai to ensure this didn't clash with RedFest.
Due to adverse weather conditions, Adams scheduled sound check at 2pm on Friday 3rd was cancelled as well as all other artists. Later on during day, the Friday show was cancelled all together and postponed till the Saturday.
I kept chasing the manager of Done events with regards to Adams soundcheck and performance timing on the Saturday. Please note, by this time I was under a lot of pressure as we were all due to fly back to London on Saturday 4th at 11am (6 people).
I was also conscious that Adam had a connecting flight back to NY from London. Bearing this in mind, I then sent the manager of Done Events a message via WhatsApp at 16:14 explaining I needed to know if Adam is performing on Saturday as we would have to change our flights etc. He told me the artist line up would not be announced until later in the evening. I then finally received this email from Done Events at 18:53:
"At this present time, I cannot confirm that we will be able to accommodate a full soundcheck or even a performance for Adam tomorrow. This is due to the adverse weather conditions the site has suffered today..”
Again, we were still unclear but hopeful things could be turned around. By 19:24, the new line up had been announced via RedFest twitter page and Adam was not included. All the artist due to perform on Friday were included on the list, were they not able to accommodate Adam’s 10 minute performance? When we asked the organisers an explanation on the same, they didn't reply. It was not until 22:15 they finally returned my several calls and we tried very hard to get a simple answer - if Adam will be performing or not. Finally at 00:27 (Saturday 4th February) we received an email explaining:
"On the behalf of the festival it is regrettable that we are unable to proceed with the performance by Adam due to his existing flight commitments"
In short, what they are trying to say is they couldn't accommodate Adam’s performance because of the costs associated with the change of flights. This has not only contradicted the email sent at 18:53, but also the official statement released saying they didn't have the time to arrange his performance.
The whole process has caused unnecessary stress which could have been avoided had Done Events communicated with us properly and not made us wait the entire day for an answer.
Their treatment of us was appalling and has caused a huge amount of distress and loss of opportunity by Adam and Media Mix Group for not being able to do our own show in Kuwait and Dubai."
