Fine Line cancels show after threat on social media

Updated 11:55 a.m. | Posted 6:21 a.m.

A threat that turned out to be a hoax forced the cancellation of a downtown Minneapolis concert Sunday night.

A post on the social media website Reddit threatened to blow up the Fine Line Cafe before the concert by Swedish rapper Yung Lean started.

Police cordoned off several blocks to search the area and found no explosives.

First Avenue was set to host the event at Fine Line. About 350 people were evacuated around 6 p.m. The concert was nearly sold out with more than 600 tickets purchased, said First Avenue General Manager Nate Kranz.

"Obviously it was a fake threat, but it was an expensive fake threat and really caused a lot of problems downtown on a Sunday night," Kranz said.

Beyond the financial costs, "the police really had to bring in a big response and had to search through the trash cans and all that," Kranz added. "It was pretty unfortunate."

Kranz said First Avenue will refund customers for their tickets, and the club is working to reschedule the show in the future.

Yung Lean is on a U.S. tour and the concert was his only Minneapolis stop.

Kranz has been at First Avenue for 18 years and has managed thousands of events. He said it was unusual to deal with this type of threat.

"My initial reaction was this seems like an Internet hoax of some sort, but it doesn't matter," he said, "we had to take it seriously."