The bad news continues to swirl for Big Day Out as reports surface the summer festival will be scrapped in 2015.
A Music Feeds exclusive earlier on Wednesday reported promoter and director AJ Maddah had transferred his stake in the festival to US company C3 Presents. Now, a further report from the Sydney Morning Herald claims BDO will not be touring next year and the festival has parted ways with CEO Adam Zammit.
Insufficient venue bookings are believed to be behind the news with Sydney Showground general manager telling Fairfax that BDO will not be returning to the location next year.
“All I know is they cancelled the booking last week and we were told to release the date,” he said.
“It’s very disappointing for the fans and for us because it’s an iconic event. It was the first rock and roll event I went to and the first we held. I was there for 20 years at Paddington and we’ve been with it here ever since.”
Zammit appears to be a casualty of this year’s forgettable run across Australia, which incurred huge debt estimated to be in the $8-$15 million range and supposedly falsified attendance figures.
24-year-old junior accountant Blake Kendrick has moved into Maddah’s previous role as director and is the only remaining member of the previous team still employed by C3 Presents.
Dave Faulkner of veteran Sydney rock band Hoodoo Gurus believes Big Day Out is capable of an Australian comeback thanks to the festival’s rich history around the country.
“It seemed that the AJ Maddah stewardship wasn’t going so well. The good thing is [American owners] can’t take it away from Australia because the value they have is intrinsically here. China doesn’t want the BIg Day Out does it?
“Hopefully they will succeed and make a filthy big profit, because they will still be employing plenty of people here to run the shows. Running festivals is a rich man’s game, while they create kingdoms and make grand decisions we can only hope the little people still get some crumbs off the table.”
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