T-Pain calls out Wisconsin State Fair Park officials on social media

By Kendall Keys

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    WEST ALLIS, Wisconsin (WISN) — T-Pain called out Wisconsin State Fair Park officials on social media. The singer took to TikTok, telling his viewers why his car drifting event will no longer take place at the Milwaukee Mile.

“Wiscansin State Fear,” is scheduled for June 13, the day before his music festival in Milwaukee on June 14.

T-Pain’s famous song lyric, “Put you in a mansion somewhere in Wiscansin,” inspired “Wiscansin Fest,” which returns to Milwaukee for its fourth year this summer as “Back to Wiscansin.”

The day before the festival at the Rave, “Wiscansin State Fear,” was supposed to take over the Milwaukee Mile.

“It went away and we didn’t say anything. Understandably, people got mad. I want to tell you why,” T-Pain said on TikTok.

In a nearly 20-minute video posted to his TikTok, T-Pain aired frustrations with the organizers his team was working with at Wisconsin State Fair Park. The singer said he signed a contract for the event, with plans to provide attendees access to watch cars drift and ride carnival rides.

“I made sure that that point was driven home because I needed stuff for the spectators to do,” T-Pain said.

T-Pain said that after tickets went on sale, organizers reached out, wanting to change the event name.

“They own the Wisconsin State Fair and our event was called ‘Wiscansin State Fear’ and they said, that’s not family friendly,” T-Pain said.

According to T-Pain, organizers would not allow carnival rides at his event.

“He said we can’t have carnival rides, because if we have rides, gangs are going to come,” T-Pain said. “They’re promoting rides and games. How come there’s no gangs showing up to these things that you’re promoting. Oh, is it because you’re doing it and not Black T-Pain?”

T-Pain said organizers also said that with Greek Fest happening the same weekend in June, they didn’t have enough law enforcement staffing to keep the event safe. T-Pain said his team offered to provide 100 security guards, but organizers declined.

T-Pain said his event will instead be at Road America, near Elkhart Lake, on the same date. Information on the ticketing website promises open drifting and carnival rides.

Wisconsin State Fair Park responded to the allegations in a statement to WISN 12 News.

“We take responsibility and apologize for the way this was handled. There were missteps in internal communications that are not representative of the standard at Wisconsin State Fair Park. We were overly ambitious about what we could host, and unfortunately, these missteps led to this event not coming to fruition. We are taking steps to ensure a more complete event review process is in place,” said Tess Kerksen, Wisconsin State Fair Park director of marketing and communications.

WISN 12 News also reached out to a representative for T-Pain for comment, but did not hear back.

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