The Austin Police Department has arrested a man suspected of making a bomb threat that resulted in the cancellation of The Roots and Friends Jam at SXSW. Trevor Ingram, 26, was apprehended on Saturday night (March 17) and booked on charges of terroristic threat, a third-degree felony.
Police say that after their search, no threat was found in the area around the Fair Market venue where the event was scheduled to take place. Bud Light, which was hosting and sponsoing the show, chose to cancel it due to safety concerns.
(The original version of this article was published on January 2, 2018 and can be found below.)
As Austin’s annual South By Southwest (SXSW) music festival begins to wind down, it’s ending on a terrifying note.
On Saturday night (March 17), The Roots’ performance was cancelled following an alleged bomb threat. At the JW Marriott hotel in downtown Austin, where The Roots were staying, bomb-sniffing dogs were called in to thoroughly search the premises.
The Roots’ James Poyser told HipHopDX, “So crazy … God is good tho … we’re all safe.”
A press statement obtained by DX reads, “Due to a security concern, we have made the difficult decision to cancel tonight’s Bud Light x The Roots SXSW Jam. After working proactively with SXSW, the Austin Police Department, and other authorities, Bud Light believes this is the best course of action to ensure the safety of our guests, staff and artists. We appreciate your understanding.
“We are truly sorry to have to cancel the event but we felt it was necessary to take all safety precautions.”
The Roots were scheduled to perform alongside Ludacris, Dermot Kennedy, Jessie Reyez, Rapsody, Tank & the Bangas, Moon Taxi, and other surprise guests at the Bud Light x The Roots & Friends Jam. The event was being held at the Fair Market on E 5th Street.
Questlove, who frequently tends to his social media accounts, reportedly addressed the situation in a since-deleted tweet.
“Uh, welp can’t say much but for those in Austin waiting in line to see us tonight,” he wrote. “Tonight’s show has been cancelled. They’ll make official announcement but I’d rather save y’all the trouble of waiting in line.”
One Twitter user responded to The Roots’ drummer, “Safety first.”
Several attendees also took their concerns to Twitter.
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There had been numerous bombings the whole week 3 people where killed and they didn’t cancel the whole thing
Yeah but those bombings were targeted at individuals while they were at home. And SXSW is a massive festival, it’s way too big to just cancel the entire thing. It would be like cancelling Sundance/Coachella/ and Burning Man all in one press release. But cancelling a single show at a single venue is reasonable if there’s a credible and direct threat against it. And the show probably wouldn’t have gotten cancelled if it weren’t for those three real bombs that had went off last week. Budweiser was just playing it safe because if the bomb had been real they would have had blood on their hands. And supposedly they already caught and arrested the guy who emailed the bomb threat.
SXSW this year was straight doo-doo. 100 acts and only a few quality rap acts. I sat through 4 hours waiting for Nas/Rhapsody, and had to sit through Lil Razzle, Lil Dazzle, Yung whatever, etc….Nas never came out. TI closed. Rhapsody was the best on the whole bill, and Just Blaze killed it. But as a whole, SXSW and rap in general has been so dumbed down, it’s embarrassing. Everybody is a carbon-copy. Start showcasing the young artists who actually can rap and make good music.
It’s been garbage for a few years. It’s odd that it started sucking once the corporate sponsors pulled out. Figured it would be the opposite. Looks like you went to the one good show. A few years ago there were 3-4 shows like that a night.
Word, it used to be sooo dope, and I’m not sure what the decline is all about. We’re way over-saturated with trap music. Every artist sounds the same; screaming over backing tracks that are the same level as their mic. Time to turn the page on trap. It was a toss up for me choosing Nas or The Roots (hard decision to make). Oh well. Sxsw needs to step it up.
How come you didn’t come to our show, though?
Because your show is one of the garbage shows we were talking about. My favorite was a year or so ago when Rhymesayers was doing a show the same night DX was doing their anniversary party. Odd because Rhymesayers is one of the reasons DX existed for so many years before Complex came along bought DX and ruined it.
HHDX has become garbage, sorry Trent but you gotta reflect on yourself before change can happen.
Its surprising something hasn’t happened there. Security is horrible and the idiot natives got upset when they wanted to increase measures after that one guy went driving through a crowd of people.
Come on i thought white trash loved bud light! The fucks the world coming to
i wish somebody would bomb the hiphopdx offices with all the deam idiots including the executives on the inside
Thank the overworked spam filter for that. We don’t delete any comments, regardless how lame they are. Case in point: yours.
Trying to save face there, huh, Trent?
I guess you could say SXSW this year was going to be…*puts shades on*..THE BOMB! YEEAAAH!