Tinariwen cancels North American tour due to visa application issues

AUSTIN, Texas - Tinariwen, a Grammy Award-winning group of Tuareg musicians, have canceled their North American tour due to issues with their US visa applications.

The group announced the cancelation via social media, saying that the members and their tour manager's US visa applications "have been under administrative processing for more than a month."

"Everything has been tried to expedite the process and reorganize dates to buy some time, but there is now no other choice than to cancel the whole North American tour, which will hopefully be rescheduled as soon as the horizon brightens," says the post.

Tinariwen was expected to do a 20-stop tour across the US and Canada, including a stop at Austin's Mohawk on September 23. The tour was scheduled to begin in Chicago on Sept. 9.

All tickets will be refunded, says Levitation, the organization presenting the event. Levitation will be selling prints of posters made by Ventral is Golden for the band to help recoup Tinariwen's costs.