Singer's message: "u 2 know i never want to let any of u down. ever."
View full sizeJustin Bieber performs at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., Saturday night.
Justin Bieber broke Angela Ruhnke’s 12-year-old heart and her mother’s wallet Sunday.
The two rode seven hours on a train from New Jersey, checked into a $170-a-night hotel, then took a bus Sunday to go see Bieber live in concert at the New York State Fair.
Angela put on a blue T-shirt that said, “The future Mrs. Bieber.”
She was in tears by the time they reached the gate. The other girls on the bus said there would be no concert that night.
Bieber’s voice is worn out and doctors said he needed to rest for the next day or two. As he performed in New Jersey Saturday night, his promoters were on the phone with state fair staff to reschedule Sunday’s concert for Wednesday.
It would have been a sold-out show. Parents heard the news on the radio and websites and dreaded waking up their tweenage daughters. One mother tried to softened the blow with a batch of her daughter’s favorite blueberry pancakes.
Almost 17,000 ticketholders had to decide whether they could rearrange their lives to make it to the show Wednesday. People started offering tickets for sale online.
For some, Bieber sings at the same time as soccer tryouts. College courses are starting and kids in Michigan and Pennsylvania go back to school this week. Parents have to work.
“It’s just kind of a shock,” Alyssa Love, 11, said as she approached the gate with her cousin and aunt, who would have to work on Wednesday and could not drive three hours again from Massena.
Jamie Swearingen starts her college semester this week, but said she would try to bring her four girls back again, a three-hour drive from Buffalo.
“We got to,” said her husband, Ian, as he looked at four disappointed girls.
The late notice cost people a lot of money.
For Angela's 12th birthday present, Tina Ruhnke said she spent about $340 on the hotel, $300 on the train, $110 on concert tickets, plus the cost of state fair food. They aren’t doing it again in three days. They called Ticketmaster for a refund and decided to enjoy the fair anyway Sunday.
They decided to play along with a promotion by the radio station 93Q.
The station hid Justin Bieber photographs around the fair and challenged people to find them in a “Bieber Fever” scavenger hunt. If you found one, your name would be entered in a drawing to win a trip to see Bieber in San Diego.
The Ruhnkes thought that was their best chance to see the star.
“We’re on a mission,” Tina Ruhnke said.
Bieber kept fans updated with his Twitter feed.
“im gonna be ok just need 2 rest but i wanted all of u 2 know i never want to let any of u down. ever. i really appreciate all the kind words,” he wrote.
Later, he said, “this really sucks.”
State fair telephones rang all morning. People wanted to know how to get a refund, whether new tickets were on sale for Wednesday’s concert and whether the fair would cover their hotel expenses.
State Fair Director Dan O’Hara asked people to be sensitive to the young singer.
“He’s a 16-year-old man and he’s on tour. It just caught up to him,” O’Hara said. “As a parent, I certainly understand the situation, a young boy his age. He’s probably just overdone it.”
Bieber, a Canadian, is a singer who also taught himself to play drums, guitar, piano and trumpet.
He is on his first headlining tour of North America to promote his album “My World.” It started June 23 and rolls through 40 cities before Sept. 4. In August, he played in 14 cities, including Newark on Saturday night.
Tris McCall, the rock critic for the Newark Star-Ledger, said the show was surprisingly slamming. He noted that Bieber sometimes took a few bars to find his voice, but said he thought that was because the singer’s voice is changing, not because he was sick.
“You can tell he doesn’t have that silky delivery he had on some of his earlier singles,” McCall said. “You didn’t get the sense that he was ever going to throw in the towel.”
McCall said it was the loudest concert he’s reviewed in a long time, not because of the music, but because of the thousands of screaming young girls.
As Bieber rocked New Jersey, his promoters called the New York State Fair to say his voice needed a rest.
In Syracuse, Clay Campbell, of the booking agency Triangle Talent, took the call during the Rihanna concert at the Grandstand.
Bieber’s promoters told him the doctor did not want Bieber to do the concert in New Jersey, but the equipment was set up and people were already coming into the building. There was still time to rearrange the Syracuse show.
The state fair only runs for 12 days, so the days were limited and the Grandstand was open Wednesday. But that meant moving a show in Manchester, N.H., to Dec. 9, a school night. It would preserve a Tuesday concert at Madison Square Garden where he plans to film a 3D movie.
They did it. But most people were in bed by the time the fair alerted news organizations.
To make things even more confusing, the State Fair had announced earlier Saturday evening that the stage setup freed up 200 seats for the sold-out show. So many people woke up Sunday morning thinking they could buy last-minute tickets, if they got to the fair early.
O’Hara said those tickets sold quickly. He did not yet know how many people refunded tickets, but said those seats will be resold for Wednesday. Some tickets emerged on the Ticketmaster website Sunday. A ticket to the concert is also good for admission to the fair.
O’Hara put a positive spin on the situation. Also on Wednesday, there is a promotion that allows one price, $25, to ride the rides all day. The celebrity chef Mario Batali will appear in the Chevrolet Court at 2 p.m.
The country music band Lady Antebellum was scheduled before they became a sensation to play a free concert at 8 p.m. in the Chevrolet Court. O’Hara expects up to 20,000 people for that show.
Bieber is now scheduled to play at 7 p.m. in the Grandstand.
O’Hara said he thinks Wednesday’s attendance could approach the kind of numbers the state fair usually sees on a weekend. It’s a crowd the fair can handle, he said.
“It’s going to be a fun day,” O’Hara said.
Contact Michelle Breidenbach at mbreidenbach@syracuse.com or (315) 470-3186.
Top links
» Breaking news early Sunday from The Post-Standard, and comments from several crabby old people.
» More on the postponed Justin Bieber concert
» Justin Bieber -- I Can't Go On! [TMZ]
» Bionic Child Pop Star Justin Bieber Malfunctions [Gawker]
» Justin Bieber's Twitter account
» The Justin Bieber guide for old people [Gawker]