Australia’s Soundwave festival has been cancelled little more than a month before it was due to get underway.
The three-day, three-city event was scheduled to take place in Brisbane on January 23, Sydney a day later and Melbourne on January 26, but promoter AJ Maddah has announced he’s pulled the plug due to “poor ticket sales.” It’ll also not go ahead in 2017, with this year’s Soundwave seemingly the event’s swan song.
In a series of Twitter posts, Maddah says: “I am devastated to have to announce the cancellation of Soundwave 2016 due to poor ticket sales. I am very sorry. I tried my best. Thank you to all the fans, bands and people who supported the event for the last 12 years. I wish we could have ended it on a better note.
“Great triumph for the internet hate squad and the trolls. Congratulations guys. Only thing is, you are now fast running out of targets.”
Maddah says fans should seek refunds from the point of purchase. However, main ticket retailer Eventopia is directing fans back to the promoter, saying he is “responsible for all ticketing funds that were advanced.”
Eventopia add: “We regret to inform customers of the cancellation of Soundwave festival 2016 due to poor ticket sales, as advised by the promoter this afternoon.
“Customers should contact the promoter of the festival directly to request their ticket refund in full using the contact details supplied below. The Soundwave Festival Promoter can be contacted at info@soundwavefestival.com”
Maddah also claims that he tried to get Rage Against The Machine back together to save the festival, but was unsuccessful.
The event was thought to be in trouble earlier this week when L7 announced they would not be appearing. And both Bring Me The Horizon and NOFX were said to still be waiting for their deposits to be paid – an issue Maddah addressed in an earlier tweet.
He said: “Essentially here are the brief facts. Eventopia were supposed to give Soundwave a scheduled advance to pay deposits to NOFX and BMTH. Their CFO changed her mind and decided not make the advance but didn’t tell anyone. So we (SW & bands) waited and waited for money.
“If they had informed us that scheduled funds were cancelled we could have made other arrangements. So now we are in bad situation. There have been discussions today. I”m waiting on Eventopia/Ticketek to make their decision. We cannot hold the festival without their support.”
Less than 24 hours later, he confirmed the cancellation of the festival, although Soundwave’s official website and social media accounts are yet to be updated with the news. Other acts who were to due appear included Disturbed, Deftones, Killswitch Engage, Bullet For My Valentine and Public Enemy.
