Thousands of bees crashed the Matchbox Twenty concert at the AVA at Casino del Sol Thursday night, delaying the concert by 90-plus minutes.
As fans were lining up outside the AVA about 30 minutes before the 8 p.m. show Thursday, a couple thousand bees reportedly swarmed in and settled into the reserved-seating area.
A local bee specialist was called to take care of the problem, but it took more than 90 minutes before the AVA would allow fans into the venue.
“We immediately called in a bee specialist to handle the matter and clear the bees so no guests, staff, or the band would be harmed,” Casino del Sol CEO Kim Van Amburg said in a written statement Friday morning. “Once the situation was handled, guests were able to safely enter AVA and Matchbox Twenty took the stage and gave Tucson a great show!”
Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas kept fans updated on the delays and progress via Instagram. At 8:23 p.m., he posted a photo of the bee specialist arriving, captioned “Beekeeper has arrived!! Still trying to make this happen. Can’t make this up!”
Fans were allowed into the venue at 9:15 p.m. and Pasqua Yaqui police officials reported that no one was injured in the incident, according to a report on People.com. Officials could not be reached Friday for additional comment.
Just before midnight, Thomas posted on a thank-you to Tucson fans on In- stagram: “Thanx #Tucson for waiting around. So glad we got the show to happen!”
The AVA bee incident was the fourth in the Tucson area this week that left two men dead and injured several others.
The first victim, on Monday, was a landscaper trimming trees; the second, on Wednesday, was a 75-year-old man golfing in Rio Rico.
Matchbox Twenty is in the middle of a national tour with Counting Crows that played Phoenix Wednesday. Thursday’s show was not part of that tour; it was the first of several solo shows the band is sneaking in between the Counting Crows dates.
