“Did Kanye cut the power?”: What Kazakhstanis are joking about amid the Almaty blackout

Tengrinews.kz — Just hours remain before Kanye West’s concert in Almaty, but on the day of the rapper’s performance, the city was hit by widespread power outages. An emergency shutdown of power lines left residents of several districts of Almaty and the surrounding region without electricity. Threads users, as often happens, immediately began linking the blackout to the upcoming concert. A Tengrinews.kz correspondent collected some of the funniest reactions.“Did Kanye cut the power?”
While power engineers were working to restore electricity, Threads users began trying to figure out what was happening.

“Almaty, who else lost power? About 15 minutes ago,” one user wrote.

Messages from residents in other parts of the city quickly followed.
Screenshot: Threads
Judging by the posts, some users had already realized the scale of the outage after electricity disappeared in several districts at once.
Jokes soon began circulating online suggesting that the blackout was somehow connected to Kanye’s concert.

“Did Kanye cut the power everywhere?” one user wrote.

Screenshot: Threads
Screenshot: Threads
Screenshot: Threads
The jokes intensified after a photo appeared showing Kanye West dressed as an electrician, holding pliers near electrical equipment.
Screenshot: Threads
Screenshot: Threads

“Almaty, how are you enjoying life without electricity?” one user captioned the image.

Threads users continued discussing the situation humorously. Memes suggested that Kanye had supposedly decided to personally inspect Almaty’s power grid before the concert.

Another meme showed Kanye holding a huge glowing sphere, with cables seemingly stretching from it toward Almaty and surrounding districts. On the humorous map, several areas of Almaty and Almaty Region appeared to be “connected” to the sphere, while the words “Almaty Without Power” appeared above the city.
Screenshot: Threads
Screenshot: Threads
Some people, however, were already genuinely worried about the upcoming concert and whether ticket holders would even be able to get there.

“People of Almaty, how are we supposed to get to the concert? Our phones are dead, we can’t order taxis. Ye won’t be able to shower at the Ritz. The lasers won’t work — what are we going to do?”

What is happening with the power supply
Power disruptions began in Almaty and Almaty Region at around 3:00 p.m. on August 14. Residents of different parts of the city reported outages.
According to official information, an accident occurred on 500 kV overhead power transmission lines owned by KEGOC. As a result, some consumers in Almaty and the surrounding region were temporarily left without electricity.
The accident caused a total load of 300 MW to be disconnected.
In Almaty Region, electricity was cut off in the Zhambyl, Balkhash, Esik, Karasai, Shelek, Raiymbek, Uyghur, Ili, Kegen and Talgar districts.
Specialists are already working to restore power supplies.
In Almaty itself, some traffic lights stopped working because of the outage, communications were disrupted and traffic jams quickly formed. Traffic police officers were deployed to intersections.
What is known about the concert
News of Kanye West’s performance in Almaty first appeared on one of the artist’s fan pages. The information was later confirmed by entrepreneur and founder of Karre Ventures and ML1 Records Joseph Carre, as well as by the Almaty city administration.
The concert is scheduled for August 14, 2026, and will be part of Ye’s world tour.