Dear A7X Fans,
Last Tuesday has been an awful day for the italian Sevenfoldists.
Milan show, scheduled for that day, have been cancelled due to Matt’s illness. We lately learned about Stuttgart tragic incident, in which a 19-years old passed away.
As soon as we got the information about the annulment of the show we began working steadily: we called Live Nation Italy and we shared the news before the official press statement.
Even in those first moments we found some of the idiots that populate our vast and large fandom. Some of them thought we were joking, telling them a very bad prank. Actually, we have been insulted for this.
As the press statement arrived we kept on working hard. We didn’t had time fully process the news and we stayed for 11 hours in the hall of our hotel to help the fans with all the necessary informations promptly found on our social networks.
We didn’t had lunch, since as we often do we focused on the fandom, which is the most important thing for us.
Some of us even went to Assago Forum to be sure that everyone in the queue was aware of the cancellation and that informative posters had been affixed.
We then got a rumor about Stuttgart incident, but we decided not to share this information because of a lack of reliable sources; we waited for the band official statement.
The morning passed quickly as we told people not to travel towards Milan, trying to contact hotels to call off bookings. We also called buses companies, to tell them to stop travelling, because it was pointless: some of them had something like ten hours of motorway ahead.
We have done anything in our powers to help our friends, followers and fans of the band we love.
As you may know, Italy is not huge but it is geographically peculiar. Many people live on islands and for many of them, for those who live in the southern part of our country, travelling is an odissey and costs an arm and a leg.
When they write that they are angry or that they lost a lot of money, well, put yourselves in their shoes because it’s true.
But in front of these sort of tragedies money and sacrifices have to be overshadowed.
We regretted to notice, from comments and behaviours, that the fandom we are proud of is much more corrupted than expected.
We are talking about all those people that have been banned from our pages, because they offended A7X and expressed their hatred towards the band.
I rarely in my life felt as ashamed as I was reading those comments.
They made us italians look like a bunch of stupid, rude, selfish and self-centered human beings.
Fortunately, not all of us are like this and I hope that you know even after that viciousness.
Well, I am here -as the admin of A7X Italy- to give voice to all the people I am proud to represent, and that are the majority, the strong and honest part of the italian fandom. Not all italians are like that.
Of course the biggest part of us was devasted for the cancellation, maybe even disappointed because of the “late” communication, some of them were worried for Matt’s health.
But once they knew about the incident they ceased complaining, feeling angry or disheartened. They mourned and showed respect.
They are the real fans. With them, I apologise to the band, the crew and all of you for the wickedness people expressed.
And we don’t want to deal with that sort of people.
We don’t want to be associated with these people.
We don’t want to represent them.
The staff of this community and our followers are made up of smart beings that immediately understood that:
1) the health of a member of this band we love is the most important thing
2) this band does not cancel a show easily, let alone a sold out show. The decision was necessary and well pondered.
3) after similar tragedies,police needs to investigate, gears and equipments are seized for further inspections.
The right and fair thing to do was to stop, in order to sort out the situation and mainly to respect the passed away and the injured workers.
As a conclusion, I would also apologise for the massive amount of comments you will see under A7X’s posts, in the next few days.
You will consider them umpleasant but up until the postponing of the show or the definitive cancellation of it (along with the refund details), all the fans will be anxious.
Be patient and try to understand their point of view, please.
We hope that you can accept our sincere apology, from the scorned fans that read and condemned those vicious and childish comments of our compatriots.
Not all of us are like this, and it’s important for us, to let you know.
Sincerely yours,
Giada and all the A7X Italia’s staff.