There is a major brouhaha brewing between Andrew ‘French’ Wright, founder of the CHUG IT party series and Grace ‘Spice’ Hamilton, Queen Of Dancehall over her non-appearance at a Miami show over the Labor Day weekend.

The organisers have threatened legal action and issued a strongly worded statement placing the blame squarely for the no-show on the well-coiffed head of Spice.

On Sunday night, a statement was released on the official Instagram page of CHUG IT, which read, “Please be informed that CHUG IT has met all obligations with paying the Artiste Spice $38,773.42 despite the no show. Our attorneys will be proceeding with taking immediate legal action for refund and damage caused.”

A subsequent statement outlined the events that triggered the fallout.

“The artiste was paid in full, including all related expenses for a performance that did not happen. The event was granted a permit and had all legality to take place. The venue could not have been advertised if this was not the case,” a statement from the Chug It organisers said.

Spice hit back using her bully pulpit — her Instagram Live — alleging that the entertainment company didn’t receive the right permits to host the event in the time slot scheduled for her performance which she claimed was 9 p.m.

However, the organisers contended that her performance had allegedly been set for 8:15 p.m according to her contract.

“Spice’s team sent the Organizer a screenshot of a text message from a third party who has no authorization over the contract that the Organizer signed with Spice, stating that the performance would be at 9pm. Despite all this, Spice was not present at the venue even for a 9pm performance, even though it was full to capacity and despite her contractual obligation to the organizers of the event having received full payment for all expenses and full and complete payment for her performance,” the release said.

Miami police showed up exactly at 9pm and shut down the venue before she could perform, as Spice was not even in the venue as yet.

In a fit of rage and an attempt to defend herself, Spice put the Chug It organisers on blast on Instagram, alleging unprofessionalism, and listing a litany of errors from cancelled flights, missing pick ups at the airport, muddled accommodations, and having to use her own money just to get to the hotel on time.

“CHUG IT WAS A SCAM. Let the Sue begin!!!” Spice captioned her IG Live, which you can view below.

The event organisers hit back:

“The misinformation and subsequent effects of this misinformation that is now circulating regarding the brand due to her Instagram Lives are now causing significant damages, which could possibly impact the current brand contracts that exist. The brand has an extensive agreement and would not jeopardize the longevity of their contract for ANY reason,” the organisers said.

“There was no false advertising. There would be no false advertising when the Artiste herself made posts to her own page concerning the event. There is no false advertising when the artiste was paid in full for her performance.”

The organisers continued: “Chug It is not the aggressor in this situation. She made attempts to threaten the event despite extreme and extensive efforts to meet her demands. For her to go to her Instagram live and page to inflict damage to a brand, that loves her and has done great business with her on multiple occasions is disappointing.

In all the years of staging this event, these circumstances have never occurred. While we seek legal advice to remedy this matter, we are open and extend an invitation to Spice to engage in discussions for an amicable resolution. In the meanwhile, we continue to work on the next staging of CHUG IT in the USA.

Timeline of Events:

1. The Artiste was paid her full booking deposit as per the contract.
2. A stipulation of her contract indicates that the final hotel and flight itinerary should be confirmed two weeks before the departure date. Despite numerous requests made to Spice’s team for this information, the full information for the traveling parties was not forthcoming to the organizers until September 1st, with the first flight being requested to take place on September 3rd.
3. The flights for two members of the traveling party were booked and submitted to Spice’s representatives. When these members of the traveling party went to the airport they were advised of an issue with their flight, which was no fault of the organizers, but was 100% the fault of the Airline. The airline rectified the situation and the parties proceeded with traveling. What had happened was that the company’s credit card was flagged because of the high number of transactions that were taking place within a short period of time as a result of trying to process all the last minute information submitted by Spice’s Team.