Some 3,500 people who purchased tickets Saturday’s Convocation Center performance were forced to change plans.

The Convocation Center announced Thursday that DAYGLOW was canceled due to “facility production concerns.”

DAYGLOW, the self-proclaimed “World’s Largest Paint Party” has been touring nationally and internationally since 2006. The show is a rave/dance party hybrid featuring deejays, acrobats, an elaborate light show and culminates with the audience being showered with body paint.

Paul Palian, NIU director of media and public relations, said the show was canceled due to a sprinkler system issue at the Convocation Center.

“There were concerns something could happen,” Palian said. “They found this and decided to err on the side of safety.”

The Convocation Center announced DAYGLOW in November and sold out quickly before being canceled two days before the performance was set to take place.

Palian said the decision to cancel the show came from NIU administration after it was informed of the situation. Palian did not know specifically which NIU administrator made the final decision.

“You can minimize that risk for the students and performers,” Palian said. “For the safety of all those involved, it was the best decision. The university always puts safety first.”

Zach Samson, DAYGLOW event director and promoter, said he was surprised to find out the show had been canceled 48 hours before the performance.

“If there were any issues, they should have been brought up three months ago,” he said.

Palian said the sprinkler issue would be fixed by the end of the week. DAYGLOW’s next scheduled tour date is Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn. Samson said the show takes between six and eight hours to set up.

“We will come back to NIU any day of the week if we get the OK from the university,” Samson said. “All we care about is our fans.”

Samson said the decision to cancel the performance was made exclusively by the university.

“We had absolutely no say about this,” he said. “This cancellation had nothing to do with DAYGLOW. We were ready to go perform on Saturday night.”

Samson said he was displeased with the situation.

“It was not handled professionally,” Samson said. “This was handled wrong.”

According to the DAYGLOW website, the performance may be rescheduled for a later date.

“Our fans come first, and that is the most important thing to us,” Samson said. “If [the university] really cares about their students, this would be the last thing they would do.”

The cancellation comes on the heels of the Convo’s announcement on Tuesday that attendees under the age of 18 would not be permitted. The show was originally open to those aged 16 or older.

All tickets will be fully refunded at the point of purchase.