The announcement of Khaled’s absence was reportedly left until the very last minute by festival organisers, who cited ‘travel issues’ as the reason for their headliner not showing up. Khaled’s headline slot was initially billed as ‘DJ Khaled and friends’ implying a host of appearances from the many artists he’s collaborated with through the years, and would have marked a star-studded end to the Finsbury Park-based festival on a day that also included performances from the likes of Giggs, Rick Ross, and Rae Sremmurd.

The festival announced Khaled’s absence via Twitter, claiming that he was unable to appear due to conflicting schedules based around the filming of reality TV show The Four, but that the festival’s organisers had also known about the potential issue for months, and had ‘tried to make it work, it wasn’t possible’.

We take responsibility for not telling fans sooner and want all Khaled’s fans in UK to know he truly looks forward to coming to UK to perform soon.

— Wireless Festival (@WirelessFest) July 8, 2018

Despite this apparently legitimate reason- however late in the day the Wireless organisers left it to tell festivalgoers- Khaled then caused uproar by posting pictures on his Twitter account, claiming that he was ‘still on vacation’, pictured poolside with his son, and the travelling in his private jet. These contradicting stories have naturally provoked a confused and angry backlash from fans, who had been hoping to see Khaled in Finsbury Park.

Still on vacation!!!!!!!! In this pic me and my son discussing release date for new anthem . @asahdkhaled: dad we fully loaded .. Daddy: of course! I also said son lets enjoy our vacation our fans know we coming FAN LUV KNOW HOW WE DO ! @wethebestmusic !!!! #FatherOfAsahd pic.twitter.com/5yZUJHQGpj

— DJ KHALED (@djkhaled) July 7, 2018

I guess you just had a "problem" travelling to London and honoring a business agreement, because it looks like you clearly had access to transportation.

— NOLADahling (@NOLADahling) July 8, 2018

Drake was the man to step up in Khaled’s absence, and debuted several new tracks from his new double album Scorpion, but it was a reduced compared to what is expected of a standard  festival headliner, and after the initial surprise, some fans are still dissatisfied with the conduct of both DJ Khaled and Wireless Festival’s organisers.

So Drake came out at Wireless and it went off #wirelessfestival pic.twitter.com/w4Z4WDUk4C

— TheBigOG (@Ogooluwa_) July 9, 2018

why are people so impressed with drake coming out at wireless. he was meant to replace dj khaled’s set but only stayed on for less than 20 mins, but somehow everyone thinks that’s acceptable just because it’s Drake … Wireless is a ripoff and we all know it lol #wireless2018

— annie (@moschinoT) July 9, 2018

THIS HAPPENED pic.twitter.com/YYcT6GYWHf

— Veronica. (@cvrpio_) June 19, 2017

Responding to the event, Khaled issued a statement in two separate Instagram posts claiming that:

“They cut my time short and they had me back stage for a hour and half and the sound kept breaking… Then I heard my fans and I said I’m go out even if the sound cuts off and even if they cut my time short. I’m here for my fans even if the sound man and promoter don’t have there stuff together I forgive them”

Khaled appeared to attract further criticism after posting a second Instagram video of the evening where he can be heard shouting “they want to cut my s–t, but this is California,”; observers were quick to note that the Electric Daisy Carnival is held in Nevada.

Meanwhile, DJ Khaled is preparing to release his latest album ‘Grateful’ on June 23, which features collaborations with Jay Z, Beyonce, Drake, Justin Bieber and Chance the Rapper.