The Big Day out will not be back in Auckland next year, after the festival was bought by an American-owned company.
The Australian director of the event AJ Maddah sold his share to US company C3 Presents, who have pulled all shows for this year.
But the Texan company, which also runs Lollapalooza, said in a statement provided to Fairfax on Thursday morning that it is “proud” of the Australian brand and that “we intend to bring back the festival in future years”.
It would not say when nor commit to the same run of cities the Big Day Out played to: Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Gold Coast and Auckland.
Campbell Smith, the New Zealand promoter of the event, was not returning phone calls and emails this morning.
C3 now wholly owns the BDO after AJ Maddah’s shares were transferred to the American company only nine months after Maddah took control of long-time co-owner Ken West’s half of the business.
A source told Fairfax Maddah was unable to meet his obligations to pay half the debts incurred in the disastrous running of the event in 2014.
It was marred by record low crowds, alleged unpaid debts to contractors and unhappy punters.West’s business partner Vivian Lees sold his half to C3 in 2011, marking the end of an era for the much-loved festival.
Arguably the Big Day Out was the Australian music industry’s equivalent of Vegemite. Maddah is understood to be now focusing on the Soundwave heavy rock festival, one of Australia’s most successful in recent years, although in a further blow to the 41 year old music promoter, the hard rock Warped tour he brought to Australia will also not go ahead in 2014.
Peter Thorpe, general manager of the Sydney Showground, confirmed to the SMH on Wednesday that the BDO would not be held at the venue next year. “All I know is they cancelled the booking last week and we were told to release the date,” Thorpe 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.”
Meanwhile the owner of major Melbourne venue which usually hosts BDO sideshows told Fairfax: “Your story is 100 per cent correct. There will not be a Big Day Out in 2015. Not a single agent has been approached by the BIg Day Out.” He did not wish to be named.
The Big Day Out in Australia was something of a disaster this year, with reports of reduced crowds, allegations of unpaid debts to contractors and rumours the event lost between $9 million and $12 million.
Dave Faulkner, from the Hoodoo Gurus, said the change to US ownership may not be all bad, as long as C3 does resurrect the event from 2016: “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
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“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.”
C3 has been approached for comment.
– Stuff
