Fugees' Diaspora Calling! Set Cut Short by 11 p.m. Curfew at Milton Keynes
The Fugees had their microphones switched off mid-song on Friday, 7 August at the Diaspora Calling! Festival, when a legal noise curfew at Milton Keynes National Bowl ended the show before the group could finish their set.
Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean were performing "Ready or Not" when the 11 p.m. cutoff took effect. A sign on the festival stage stated that the show was legally required to finish at 11 p.m. and could not continue beyond that time. "Killing Me Softly With His Song" and "Fu-Gee-La" were among the songs left unplayed, according to Billboard.
The Fugees had arrived onstage at 10 p.m. BST, giving the group roughly one hour before the licensing restriction kicked in. Their 14-song set drew from The Score, the group's landmark 1996 album, including "The Score" and "Vocab," alongside Lauryn Hill solo tracks such as "Doo Wop (That Thing)," performed with Erykah Badu. Hill also performed a cover of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" with her son Zion Marley.
After the sound was cut, Hill led the crowd in an a cappella rendition of "Ready or Not" to close the show. Wyclef Jean, speaking to The Sun, said, "We're really sad how it ended," and expressed hope to continue the following year.
The festival, curated by Hill, was the first time Diaspora Calling! had been held in the U.K. The lineup featured Erykah Badu, the British rapper Giggs, and Nigerian Afrobeats artist Fireboy DML, with comedian Dave Chappelle hosting. Billboard U.K. approached the festival organisers for further comment after the curtailed set.
Fans were vocal about the ending. Some called it "ridiculous" and said it "spoiled the whole experience," NME reported.
For Hill, a curfew cutting short a set is not without precedent. In May 2016, her Diaspora Calling! concert at Atlanta's Chastain Park Amphitheatre was similarly cut short by that venue's own 11 p.m. noise restriction. Hill told fans at the time she would "make it up" to them.
Before the Milton Keynes performance, Hill and Jean had teased a potential return to the studio for the Fugees, a detail that now sits alongside an unfinished setlist and a promoter's hope, expressed by Jean, of returning next year.
