Coolio suffers asthma attack, not expected to peform
8/30/2014The Hip Hop Festival at the Perrysburg Community Center was dealt a double blow Saturday night as headliner Coolio was not expected to perform and the festival experienced a power outage that affected three of its four stages.
Operations director Jason Craig said late Saturday it was highly unlikely that Coolio, famous for hits "Gangsta's Paradise" from the 1995 film Dangerous Minds and 1994's "Fantastic Voyage, would take the Perrysburg Township stage. Perrysburg Township Police said the rapper had suffered an asthma attack before the show.
It was unclear where Coolio suffered the asthma attack and whether he was at the festival grounds or not.
Mr. Craig said artists Bone Crusher and Layzie Bones from the group Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony were still scheduled to perform, despite the lack of power the festival was experiencing.
Three of the four stages were without power, as was the community center itself and one of the food trucks at the festival. A look at the Toledo Edison power outage map revealed no system-wide outages in the area, and Toledo Edison spokesman Hans Rosebrock said any loss of power was not because of the utility.
Earlier in the day, members of the security team at the concert told a Blade reporter that several angry would-be concert-goers had arrived before the events were to kick off and demanded refunds. It was unclear late Saturday whether their money was returned.
The Hip Hop Festival had been plagued by several artists dropping out of the lineup, which originally was to include several other big-name acts including Bushwick Bill, J Kwon, and individual members of Naughty By Nature.
Several local acts were to perform 15 to 20 minutes earlier in the show. A few, such as Raine Wilder, dropped out, but acts Tommy "T-jacks" Jackson and Streetz Jsalez performed for the crowd Saturday.
A crowd of up to 7,000 people was expected by festival organizers, and local police departments were planning to keep an eye on the growing crowd.