DAVENPORT, Iowa — T-Pain attempted to bring the "Good Life" to the Mississippi Valley Fair Thursday night in Davenport, but concert-goers did not return the favor during his grandstand performance, throwing bottles and other objects onto the stage, according to multiple reports.
Midway through the show, the star rapper paused his concert to address the unruly behavior shown by the crowd. News 8 spoke with concertgoers who said the crowd was throwing beer cans, cups and other objects onto the stage.
"I'm not pissed or anything, but it's only so much s**t I'm [going to take]," T-Pain said. "I'm not a f*****g clown. I'm not gonna sit up here and get pies thrown in my face."
T-Pain ultimately resumed his concert after the short pause and finished his show, but the disrespect displayed toward one of the biggest names to recently perform in the Quad Cities region has raised concerns across social media.
Mississippi Valley Fair General Manager Shawn Loter commended T-Pain for handling the situation with class and not leaving the stage.
“I think he put on a heck of a show. He did. Yeah, he handled himself, tried to explain not to do that otherwise he'd walk off the stage. Then they continued to do it, but he stuck it out and finished his show,” Loter said.
Loter said that the fair is tightening up security ahead of Friday night’s grandstand concert with Bret Michaels.
“If you choose to throw stuff in there and stuff, we will grab you, we will take your fun card away, and we'll no trespass you,” Loter said. “And if you throw your can up there and it hits someone, you might get charged with assault.”
Scott County Sheriff Tim Lane said that there’s usually a small group of individuals attending the fair who are intoxicated, sneak in alcohol and act out inappropriately. Lane outlined the consequences for concertgoers who act out in the future.
“We take their fun card away from them. So they're not going to see any more shows for the rest of the fair, and there's a possibility that some of the things that they do is very severe, and they're going to go to jail for that,” Lane said.
But whether it’s only a few individuals or not, Lane said the incidents are leading performers to request first responders to be on standby near the stage in case anything goes wrong.
“What we're finding is some of the performers are asking that they have medics close and law enforcement close so that they can come on stage, or already be on stage, on the backside of the stage, in order to get performers off the stage safely in case something happens,” Lane said.
Lane said his Department has already had to deploy pepper spray to stop fights at the Fair.
“So far this year, we've had several fights that have involved a large number of people, upwards to 40 people. And we have had to go in, and we have had to spray the pepper, and that's something we don't want to do in a crowd of people,” Lane said.
