THE Roots Jam is always one of the biggest and most anticipated concerts of Austin, Texas’s South by Southwest festival, but on Saturday night this year’s all-star event was abruptly canceled due to a bomb threat.

The Roots’ drummer and co-bandleader, Questlove, announced the cancelation around 8:30 p.m. — as thousands of fans queued outside the Fair Market venue in Austin’s East Side neighborhood — citing a “severe emergency.”

He tweeted, “Uh, welp can’t say much but for those in Austin waiting in line to see us tonight. Tonight’s show has been canceled. They’ll make official announcement but I’d rather save y’all the trouble of waiting in line.” Questlove also posted an Instagram story with the caption, “Welp. It’s 2018. Show canceled. These are the times we now live in.” Both social media posts were later deleted.

Later in the evening, the Austin Police Department released an official statement confirming it had been contacted Saturday afternoon by a Live Nation representative who had received a bomb threat via email.

Police checked the venue and area and found nothing suspicious, but Bud Light, the sponsor of the Roots Jam, decided to shut down the event as a precaution. The APD later identified 26-year-old Trevor Weldon Ingram as the suspect tied to the email; Ingram was arrested Saturday night on charges of terroristic threat, third degree felony, an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The APD noted there were “no indications of any broader security concerns for any activities relating to this incident,” so the Fair Market scare does not appear to be connected to the residential package bombings that occurred in Austin earlier in the month; those explosions killed two people and seriously injured a third.

(SD-Agencies)