The Every Child is Beautiful Tour, which was to feature aspiring Roanoke Rapids Christian artist Meredith Kinleigh, has been cancelled.

The tour was to stop at the Roanoke Rapids Theatre on November 8 where Kinleigh was to get to do four sets instead of the two she was given on other legs of the tour.

Roanoke Rapids Parks and Recreation Director John Simeon said today the tour, which began on October 1, was cancelled due to low ticket sales.

“My understanding from the promoter West Virginia sold out and the next three ticket sales were very low.”

Around 250 tickets had been sold for the Roanoke Rapids show, Simeon said. “We were very pleased with the ticket sales taking place. With several weeks to go before the November 8 show we were getting multiple phone calls from church and community groups throughout the state and directed them to the ticketing website.”

Refunds will be made through the ticketing agency, he said.

On its Facebook page, the tour posted, “To all of the fans of the bands, and all the faithful that were looking for a wonderful night of worship and fellowship as we much as were, we are sorry to have had to disappoint you.

“This was truly out of our control. There are many moving parts in putting a tour together, no one person, or organization can do it alone or without the support of everyone around them. We are heartsick over this and would have posted sooner but did not want to post something before thinking and praying about what to say first.”

The post continued: “The lives that were changed in the four days that we did bring to the faithful amazed us. We witnessed many whose hearts were hardened soften — on a very personal level for some of us … We are bent but we are not broken, and through this experience know that we will continue to believe that God has a plan for us.”