Holly Humberstone has called an abrupt halt to the remainder of her European tour. The decision came after an unnamed member of her touring crew suffered a life-threatening medical emergency on the morning of September 20, just as their tour bus was pulling into Cologne.
The touring party moved quickly to get the crew member to a local hospital in the German city. By September 21, Humberstone took to social media to let fans know that the individual had stabilised and remained in the care of the hospital staff, while offering her gratitude to the medical team for their assistance during a frightening morning. That night's planned appearance at Cologne's Bürgerhaus Stollwerck had already been pulled at short notice, initially framed as an illness within the travelling party. With time to process what had happened, Humberstone chose to stop the run entirely.
Living on a bus for weeks creates an environment where a touring party functions more like a family than a collection of coworkers. Humberstone made that exact point to her audience, explaining that it felt wrong to continue across the continent while a core person was missing from the setup. Continuing with a depleted crew would have compromised the show, and she stated that the dates would instead be rescheduled for a time when the whole team could be back on the road together.
The cancellation cuts short a run of six further dates across Scandinavia and Germany over the coming week. Stops at Copenhagen on September 22, Oslo on September 23, Stockholm on September 24, Hamburg on September 26, Berlin on September 27, and Munich on September 28 will no longer take place. It rounds off a frustrating period of travel for the Grantham singer, whose tour had already hit obstacles earlier in the week. She had previously been forced to postpone shows at Le Trabendo in Paris on September 15 and Amsterdam's Paradiso on September 16 after losing her voice to what she described as a bout of flu.
The European dates had been arranged in support of Cruel World, Humberstone's second album, which came out in April following the release of its lead single To Love Somebody. In the lead-up to that record, the follow-up to her debut Paint My Bedroom Black, she spoke openly about the physical and mental toll that long stretches of touring can take. At the time, she noted that taking a break from live performance had been vital to catch her breath, lead a normal life, and work out who she was away from the stage.
While fans holding tickets in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Germany will naturally feel the sting of the cancellations, Humberstone made it clear that her crew's wellbeing had to take precedence. Far from home and facing a serious crisis, packing down the stage gear and pausing the schedule was the only sensible choice.
