Bruce Springsteen Falls Ill, Cancels Concerts

Bruce Springsteen has felt under the weather and recently postponed two shows in Philadelphia as a result. His X/Twitter page announced that Wednesday and Friday night’s concerts would have to be rescheduled. “Due to Bruce Springsteen having been taken ill, his concerts with the E Street Band at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on August 16 and 18 have been postponed,” the message read. “We are working on rescheduling the dates so please hold on to your tickets as they will be valid for the rescheduled shows.” As it stands, Bruce Springsteen has a little over a week to recuperate before the next round of his tour begins. The band’s next scheduled shows take place on Aug. 24 and 26 in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

There have been three instances this year when illness has been cited as the cause of a postponement or cancellation though it is unclear whether Springsteen himself became ill in each instance. It was announced back in March that three concerts in Albany, Columbus, and Uncasville, Connecticut, would be postponed “due to illness,” without further information. Springsteen, along with his wife Patti Scialfa, was forced to cancel an appearance after both were diagnosed with COVID in April, although it occurred during a period of lull in the tour, and no actual concerts were affected.

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After testing positive the day after the last show on the 2023 U.S. tour’s initial run, they missed the inaugural American Music Honors awards show held by the Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University. The event was a fundraiser for the Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music. In the end, the two of them taped a video acceptance speech in which they expressed that they were feeling fine despite the diagnosis, and two weeks later when the tour resumed, they were back on the road without incident.

In the early weeks of the 2023 tour, which began on Feb. 1, E Street Band members Steven Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren, Soozie Tyrell, and Jake Clemons have been unable to participate in some of the shows. Van Zandt missed one show, Lofgren missed two shows in the early weeks, and Tyrell and Clemons missed two each. Despite having a fairly full schedule for the rest of the year, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are taking a break in October, the only month they will not be touring. After starting the tour in September, which caters to the east coast, the tour settles into Canada following the break for the month of November, after which it heads to the southwest to finish out the U.S. tour in the first half of December, culminating in shows in San Francisco on December 10 and 12.