Ye (Kanye West) is coming to St. Petersburg, Russia: the dates, the ticket prices, and the campaign to stop the shows

Say Agency, a Russian concert promoter, has announced that the American rapper Ye, better known as Kanye West, will perform in St. Petersburg this fall. The concerts will take place on October 10 and 11 at Gazprom Arena, according to the organizers. Tickets run from 9,000 to 160,000 rubles ($105 to $1,880), though the cheapest have already sold out. In the first hours after the announcement, seemingly everyone weighed in on the news of Kanye West’s visit — State Duma lawmakers, musicians, and Orthodox activists alike. Meduza breaks down the uproar surrounding the popular rapper’s concerts.

Ye’s world tour behind his new album “Bully” kicked off in April 2026, and the rapper has since played several shows at home and abroad, including in Georgia. Last weekend, he performed in Kazakhstan — a day later than planned, because of bad weather and a massive blackout that hit four Central Asian countries at once.

Ye has never performed in Russia. When the rapper made a brief visit to Moscow in the summer of 2024, rumors circulated that he might play Luzhniki Stadium. But the trip was private: Ye flew in for designer Gosha Rubchinskiy’s birthday and left the country soon after. The concert never happened.

This time, the odds that Ye will actually perform in Russia are far higher. Joseph Karre, a producer whose company Karre Ventures works with the rapper, was the first to confirm the news. The concerts later appeared on the official schedule on the Ye Live Concert Tour website.

The organizers have confirmed the shows on their own website as well, and tickets are already on sale. Mash, a Telegram channel with ties to Russia’s security services, said the artist has already signed a contract and been paid.

Soon after the announcement, a screenshot of the concerts’ public offer — the binding terms of sale under Russian law — began circulating on Telegram. It said the organizers had reserved the right to substitute another artist and not issue refunds.

Anna Subcheva, the chief executive of Say Agency, said the offer contained an error. “We’ve already contacted the ticket operator ourselves and asked them to take that out of the offer, because Kanye West is definitely coming,” she said on Radio RBC, a station run by the Russian business news outlet RBC. “Nobody else is going to be taking his place.”

Tickets at Gazprom Arena start at 9,000 rubles for seats farthest from the stage. Floor tickets run 25,000 rubles, and VIP boxes cost 160,000. The cheapest tickets sold out in about an hour, according to the Russian state news agency TASS. Meduza confirmed that the yerussia2026.ru website no longer lists any 9,000-ruble seats.

Scammers have already sprung into action online, offering discounted tickets, according to Baza, another Telegram channel tied to Russia’s security services. They claim they can undercut the official price by about a third thanks to a supposed corporate discount for stadium employees.

Rumor has it the rapper won’t stop at St. Petersburg — at least, that’s what the producer Yana Rudkovskaya says. “I know he’ll be in Moscow, too,” she wrote on her Telegram channel. “As soon as I have more information about where and when, I’ll let you know here right away. It won’t be long now.”

It was Rudkovskaya who said in 2024 that Ye might play Luzhniki. That concert never materialized. Mash said a Moscow show was indeed discussed this year, but that the organizers settled on Gazprom Arena. The stadium has a retractable roof, which should keep conditions comfortable for the audience and the performer in October.

Unlike fans, who are snapping up tickets, Russian lawmakers and activists have reacted negatively to Ye’s visit. Nikolai Novichkov, a lawmaker from the A Just Russia party, demanded that the rapper support Russia’s position in the war against Ukraine:

Novichkov also took issue with Ye’s past remarks about Hitler and the Nazis. Activists from the Orthodox movement Sorok Sorokov (“Forty Forties”) backed him and promised to review the performer’s repertoire before his arrival in Russia. Two years ago, the group called for the rapper to be investigated for promoting drugs, for “extremism,” and for “discrediting” the Russian army.

Vitaly Borodin, a serial informant, called the planned concerts “immoral” and said they were “a spit in the face of our society.” “Western values should stay in the West,” he said. “We’re already drafting an official appeal to the relevant authorities and the Culture Ministry demanding that these concerts be canceled and ticket sales blocked.”

Vitaly Milonov, a State Duma lawmaker, took a softer line. He merely suggested that Ye learn a few songs from the Russian chanson genre — sentimental ballads steeped in prison-camp lore — and perform them at the concert. That, Milonov said, would make the rapper a “normal person” and put an end to his “vile indecencies.”

Asked by the St. Petersburg news outlet Fontanka whether the performer’s repertoire would be censored, Subcheva said, “Naturally, everything will be within the bounds of Russian law.”

Yuri Loza, the musician behind the well-known song Plot (“The Raft”), also questioned whether Ye is known or popular in Russia at all:

The pop singer Sergei Lazarev is another performer who may not welcome the rapper’s visit. He has three concerts scheduled in St. Petersburg on overlapping dates, October 9 to 11. Representatives for the singer, however, have already said they don’t plan to make any changes because of Ye’s arrival.