2Pac-Notorious B.I.G. orchestra show was fake, PA concertgoers learned. ‘Nobody there’

An orchestra performance in Pennsylvania featuring the music of hip-hop legends Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. was, as eager concertgoers soon learned, too good to be true.

The Saturday, June 22, concert in Pittsburgh was determined to be a scam, but some people found out the hard way after already purchasing tickets.

Jennifer Perry told WTAE she bought tickets for the Alternative Symphony show in the Carrick neighborhood of Pittsburgh through a company named ARB Marketing.

“They made it so believable,” Perry told WTAE. “Any connection between the site that you used, or when they send you the confirmation, all that stuff is shut down. So there’s literally nowhere to go.”

In an interview with WPXI, Perry said the venue where the show was supposed to be was locked when she tried to enter.

Michelle Neff, of West Virginia, shared a similar story with the station.

“It was nobody there. Really. It was an empty parking lot,” Neff told WPXI. “(I thought) what do we do next? We just drove to Pittsburgh, and now we have to find something else to do.”

As it turned out, others throughout the United States have fallen for the scam, with the 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G. orchestra concert being advertised in numerous cities.

Hearcorp, an event production company housed in the building where the Pittsburgh show was supposed to take place, said in a Facebook post it has filed a report with the state’s attorney general’s office. The company warned potential concertgoers Saturday there was no event scheduled at the venue.

“It has come to our attention that this ‘event’ is suspected to be part of a widespread scam carried out by an overseas entity called ARB Marketing,” Hearcorp said. “Unfortunately, this company has shut down any means of contact, leaving affected parties with no resources for further information.”

Commenters said the same Alternative Symphony show was being advertised in Milwaukee, Denver, St. Petersburg, Florida, and Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Kristin Gunn said June 8 she was duped by a similar concert listing in Austin.

“If any of you were excited about the Alternative Symphony Orchestra doing all Biggie and Tupac at the Sunset Room, it was a SCAM,” she said on Facebook! “Total dark space, people showing up to a locked door. So lame. Bought tickets in January so I can’t dispute it.”

Likewise for Erika Herrera Valdez, who shared a photo June 22 of her and her husband dressed in their Notorious B.I.G. apparel for the Denver concert that never happened.

“We get there and it was a scam!!!!!” she said on Facebook. “Folks should be ashamed of themselves for taking people’s money like that.”

The graphic used in the promotion of the pretend concert dates to at least 2020, when Alternative Symphony shared it in its promotion for fake concerts in Australia. The Alternative Symphony page on Facebook did not make any additional posts after announcing the show on Sept. 28, 2020.

This story was originally published June 25, 2024 at 7:38 AM with the headline "2Pac-Notorious B.I.G. orchestra show was fake, PA concertgoers learned. ‘Nobody there’."