Bosses of Australia’s Legion Music Fest have pulled the plug on what was meant to be next year’s inaugural event.
They blame “business considerations” for the decision not to go ahead with the festival, which was due to take place in January at venues in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
The festival says no ticket payments had yet been processed, so no fans have been left out of pocket.
Devildriver, Capture The Crown, Devil You Know, Aversions Crown, Battlecross, Polaris and Lordi were among the bands lined up to appear.
In a statement, organisers say: “The organisers wish to thank all Aussie metal fans for their continued support of the Legion project over the last 10 months.
“Due to a number of business considerations, we have made the decision to not proceed with the proposed launch of Legion Music Fest in January 2017.
“No transactions have been processed at all and no fans are out of pocket.”
Devil You Know drummer John Sankey was co-founder and ambassador of Legion Music Fest and pulled out of a number of the band’s shows this year to concentrate on his work with the multi-city event.
They brought in former Devildriver man John Boecklin to fill in on those dates.
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Legion Music Fest was set up as a crowdfunded event. On the event’s Pozible page, organisers say: “The challenges involved in establishing a sustainable music festival in Australia are many and varied and we are committed to working on these issues to help this event work long term.
“Predominantly due to Australia’s distance away from countries where many touring artists reside, costs such as artist fees and international travel costs involved in attracting acts to join a festival lineup can really blowout.
“We know that there’s definitely a chance that this thing could grow into something pretty big in future years, but we want to make sure that we stay realistic and grow slowly.”
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