RIP SOUNDWAVE REVOLUTION

By Shane Pinnegar
August 9th, 2011

Image courtesy of http://networkedblogs.com/lqId6?ref=nf

Today Soundwave boss A J Maddah pulled the pin on what would have been the best National touring festival of the year for all Australian hard and heavy rock fans.

Mr Maddah stated today, live on Nova FM, that “the situation is we were scheduling to make a second announcement on the 1st August, that had our festival co-headliner on that announcement and their circumstances changed at the last minute and they had to pull out and unfortunately we don’t have enough time to replace them and we didn’t really want to go ahead with an incomplete line-up.”

Rumours ricocheting around social networking media suggest that headliners Van Halen had pulled out, or that Limp Bizkit were the as-yet-unnamed co-headliner who were now unavailable.

Mr Maddah went on to say “we love our fanbase and we try to do what is best for them and we could have taken the option of limping through with the line-up that we have now, it still would have been a better financial outcome for us than the road we have chosen but we didn’t want to put an inferior product on the market.”

This statement ignited outcry and indignation across the country, with the vast majority of fans who had purchased tickets or were planning to do so in advance of the late September/early October tour expressing their disgust at having the show pulled out from under them.

The main sentiment is that it seems odd that one band pulling out means disappointing a couple of hundred thousand fans, not to mention the dozens of other bands booked on the bill.

The lineup itself is certainly strong enough to pull large crowds in every state, and there seems no reason why the organisers were going to add another 2 co-headliners at all, let alone why one of them (or Van Halen) pulling out at this stage – 6 weeks before the first show – would warrant cancelling the entire event. The lineup in it’s original form – featuring 57 bands without counting Van Halen – looks to be anything BUT an “inferior product”.

Despite announcing that this tour, should it go ahead, would be an “inferior product”, within a couple of hours the following official statement was posted on the Soundwave website (http://www.soundwavefestival.com/node/119415)

“It is with great sadness that we announce the cancellation of the Revolution Festival.

“Many of the festival bands will still be coming to Australia in that time period and team up to bring you some very special shows. These will include multi band/mini festival line-ups in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. We will be announcing these events in the next 7 days.

“Tickets purchased online will be refunded automatically as soon as it can be processed. If you purchased from an outlet, refunds will be available next week from point of purchase.”

The organizers seem to be implying that although a 57 or 58 band festival with ticket prices at $160 is “inferior”, putting on “multi band/mini festival line-ups” up and down the East Coast is not.
Some fans have expressed disgust that these individual events will all be $50 - $90 EACH. Assuming there are 5-10 of them, that adds up to considerably more per head than a single festival ticket.

Some other fans have ridiculed the refund policy. “Sure, ticket prices might be refunded,” complained one ticket holder, “but what about booking fees, registered post fees, credit card interest for the past two months?”

Additionally, many regional fans have booked hotel rooms and made travel plans, now discovering that these bookings are non-refundable.

Conspiracy theorists have been quick to allege that since one band pulling out is never enough to justify cancelling an entire festival tour, that this must be about something more, be it financial or legal reasons, the organisers cutting their losses after poor ticket sales, or something else.

If ticket sales have been slow, it’s fairly certain that the events would still attract good and viable crowds in every state – admittedly Australian audience’s overly laconic nature to ticket purchasing does grate on promoters, but every time an event or tour gets cancelled like this, more and more people will hold off buying their tickets for future events until they are certain the event will go ahead.

In a world where Download and Sonsiphere festivals are attracting record crowds, Big Day Out and Soundwave sell many events out, and Rock is on the way back into the mainstream, this cancellation is potentially damaging to Australia.

After the debacle with Intense Impact’s METAL HEALTH tour earlier this year, and now this cancellation, many industry pundits are asking - will any major international rock bands trust an Australian promoter again?

Whichever way you look at it and whatever the REAL reason for the cancellation, the ultimate losers are, as usual, the fans - many thousands of whom are now devastated that what would have been the best hard rock festival of the year is now off.

Mr Maddah did end his on air statement today with this teaser:

"Revolution was a one-off but Soundwave 2012 will be back in February and the line-up is massive.”

Maybe so Mr Maddah, but after today, will Australian audiences be so willing to part with their cash in advance?