The Kid LAROI’s homecoming tour will have to wait.
Raised in inner-city Sydney, now based in Los Angeles, the chart-topping singer and rapper was scheduled to play stadiums six cities across Australia and New Zealand in February 2024, for his The First Time Tour, presented by TEG Live and Nova.
Those dates, however, will be rescheduled to October 2024, according to a statement posted by TEG’s ticketing business, Ticketek.
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“We tried to make February work but it’s proving to be logistically impossible,” reads a statement from LAROI (real name Charlton Howard). “I’m sorry to make you wait a bit longer but we will need to move the tour to October. We’re working on the details including some new additions to the line up and will let you know ASAP.”
LAROI will follow in the footsteps of AC/DC and Sia as a homegrown stadium act when he finally kicks off his The First Time Tour in these parts. Those now-bumped dates were meant to start Feb. 2, 2024 at AAMI Park in Melbourne, before heading west for a show at Auckland’s Spark Arena on Feb. 5, the day before Waitangi Day, New Zealand’s national day.
Then, the 20-year-old was slated to head home for open-air shows in Perth, Adelaide, Sydney and the Gold Coast, about 50 miles south of Brisbane.
All existing ticketholders for the tour will be notified of rescheduled dates once confirmed, reads the Ticketek statement. Original purchases will be valid for the rescheduled date without the need for exchange.
The First Time Tour represents an upgrade from his homecoming headline tour of May and June 2022, when the ARIA and APRA Award-winner played arenas across Australia. The End of the World Tour was produced by Handsome Tours and TEG Live.
The Gadigal-born artist with Kamilaroi roots had a slow-burn hit with his debut mixtape F*ck Love from 2020, which went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 a full year after its release. Aged 17 at the time, Laroi was the first solo male Australian to hit the top since Keith Urban, whose Fuse debuted at No. 1 on the Sept. 28, 2013, chart. When F*ck Love (Savage) ruled over the ARIA Albums Chart in February, 2021, the Kid was anointed as the youngest Australian solo artist to do so, at 17 years, 5 months and 22 days.
The forthcoming tour is in support of his debut full-length album, The First Time (via Columbia), which dropped last month for a top 40 bow on the Billboard 200 (No. 26) and the Official U.K. Albums Chart (No. 29), and a No. 3 start on Australia’s ARIA Chart.
