Big Day Out 2015 music festival cancelled, American promoter C3 Presents confirms
Kathy McCabe National Music Writer
News Corp Australia Network
June 26, 201410:32AM
BIG Day Out is off next year but will be back, according to the American promoters who now solely own the 22-year-old event.
Lollapalooza producers C3 Presents confirmed they will rest the national festival which is believed to have incurred millions of dollars of debt after this year‘s festival.
“C3 Presents is proud to own Big Day Out, one of the most iconic and established festival brands in the world,†the promoters said in a statement issued overnight.
“While we intend to bring back the festival in future years, we can confirm there will not be a Big Day Out in 2015.
“We love working on BDO and are excited about the future.â€
The world-renowned festival has gone through a tumultuous few years of ownership shuffles since co-founders Vivian Lees and Ken West split in 2011.
Lees was the first to jump ship with West taking on American event producers C3 Presents as a partner.
West then bowed out in September last year with Soundwave boss AJ Maddah taking his stake to keep Big Day Out alive this year.
In November last year headliners Blur pulled out of the 2014 Big Day Out in a move which turned acrimonious when the band blamed the organisers for “constantly shifting goalpostsâ€.
There were wholesale cuts in staffing and costs but with ticket sales down for the 2014 shows headlined by Pearl Jam and Arcade Fire, the future of the Big Day Out in 2015 appeared shaky.
C3 Presents stage the successful Lollapalooza festival in Chicago which has also expanded into South America in recent years.
There has been speculation they may consider rebranding Big Day Out as a Lollapalooza spin-off to reinvent the 22-year-old travelling musical circus.
Maddah has also confirmed the Warped festival will not go ahead this year but is believed to be gearing up to announce the line-up of his Soundwave rock event.
Organisers of the Fat As Butter festival in Newcastle cancelled this year‘s show yesterday.
“Despite six months of scouring the world we just haven‘t been able to land a line up that we reckon you guys would come and play with,†they posted on their social media pages.
“It was a decision we agonised over, but sometimes the fickle gods of the almighty line up just don‘t co operate!â€
Despite rumours that more of the national touring festivals may have to scale back their events due to declining ticket sales and escalating costs to secure headliners, sources have confirmed Future Music will go ahead in 2015.
2007 was, y'know, good. Bjork, RATM, Spoon, Arcade Fire, Dino. Possibly the last half decent line-up.
2001 was the year when At the Drive In, Queens of the Stone Age and PJ Harvey all played famous shows, three of the most famous festival performances of the decade. Look the shows up on youtube.
Unfortunately I believe the decline is simply because it's too expensive to run, a lot of tax, resources, security, higher cost of living. For some reason Soundwave has just been more successful. Problem is Soundwave is only rock-metal-punk, which whilst that is a good thing, Big Day Out had the boiler room, where you could go and see Chemical Brothers or LCD Soundsystem, you could also go and watch the Flaming Lips or Dandy Warhols, indie-rockesque type bands that you won't see anywhere else. That probably won't happen at Soundwave...
So yeah, disappointing. But music scenes and cultures come and go.
Hopefully something new comes along in terms of outdoor festivals that also coincides with a music culture that embraces online HD streaming of live shows that are more interactive and direct to fans.
Hmmm, the first BDO I went to was up in Sydney when SOundgarden, The Prodigy and The Offspring headlined, it was awesome but I was at Uni, listening to Triple J and there was no way I was going to miss it. I must have been to a couple more in Sydney (Korn/Hole/Manson) was another good one. Cant remember which one I saw Ramstein at but that was a trip. And the one in Melbourne when Powderfinger came out just as they were anouncing that they won the Hottest 100, that was pretty cool.
I had just met Mrs Wannabe through work and she's agreed to meet up with me there, so it was our first date. You know I was thinking with my D when I left Metallica after 5 mins to go watch Afrika Bambada, but in hindsight I made the right decision.
I always thought it was cool that oldies would take their kids and I always imagined I'd do the same, so it's a bit sad but I can't complain as I haven't been attending. Also they usually seem to be on a Sunday or mid-week these days and it can be a real b*tch getting home, and if you do a BDO properly you need at least one day off just to get over the sunburn, dehydration and hangover.
Travelling from Cairns to Brisbane/GC for a show can be fuggin pricey, so I can generally only afford to go to one. Soundwave has had the much better lineups IMO in recent years. SW seems like it's better organised, too.