Scheduled alongside two other headline acts, the 25-year-old was supposed to take the stage at 10:30pm local time, with Chase & Status lined up to ring in the New Year.
However, Ice Spice arrived 25 minutes late for her set, reducing her performance time to a little over five minutes, much to the dismay of fans.
Brenton Larney, who witnessed the brief performance, commented: “At 11.01pm – they gave her an extra minute – they cut the mic and you heard the collective sigh from the crowd.
“They’d been waiting for a while and they get two songs?
“So that was a bit ridiculous and it was just really disrespectful how she walked off, she was laughing they tried to give her flowers for her birthday and she just shrugged them off.”
The Australian reporter continued: “It was just really disrespectful to see, especially with all the cancellations and stuff we’ve had in the Australian music scene.
“It didn’t help.”
Videos of the performance have since circulated widely on platforms like TikTok and Twitter, with many fans criticizing the singer’s tardiness.
“Honestly iconic of the organisers to enforce the schedule and not just let her lateness make everything else run later,” a commenter remarked on TikTok.
Another person added: “As a performing artist (on a way smaller scale) I can NOTT understand being late to your own show. Like that’s my #1 nightmare.”
Meanwhile, a third noted: “Being late is just unprofessional, in the UK we have curfews for music so if someone runs over the mic is just cut, I’ve never seen an artist here be late because we just don’t allow it.”
Wildlands festival responded to the incident on social media.
They stated: “We understand that Ice Spice’s delayed arrival caused some frustration. Managing a stacked festival means that we have to be extremely firm with scheduled set times. We had a strict curfew of 12:30 and needed to ensure that Chase & Status went on stage on time so you could all enjoy the NYE Countdown!”