As the he said, she said situation surrounding the collapse of Soundwave Festival continues, one of the bands originally slated for the festival’s cancelled 2016 event has backed a plan to launch a crowd-funded replacement festival.
By all accounts, it appears the ball is already rolling on the new mini-festival, which will be titled Legion. The mini-festival already has a social media presence with newly minted Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Speaking to The Music, Devil You Know drummer John Sankey said he’s planning on launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund the event soon and has already put together a production team, eyeing venues in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.
Sankey remarked on the legacy of AJ Maddah’s flagship festival and the void it’s left, saying, “I’ve been mates with AJ for a really long time and we were devastated to hear the news about Soundwave being cancelled.”
“He did such an awesome job with it all and turned it into one of the last places that Aussies could go to hear great, international and local metal bands. We were planning on coming to Australia, so why not round up the guys and figure out a way to come down anyway?”
More information about the event and the crowdfunding campaign is set to be unveiled in the coming days and Sankey has said that any money received that exceeds the campaign’s goal will be split between the bands on the lineup.
“The fans are screaming out to see these bands, so whether or not this thing actually happens is totally up to them now,” he said. Legion is already generating buzz among the local Australian heavy music community.
Australian heavy metal promoter John Howarth of Riot! Entertainment recently tweeted his desire to unite four of the bands he was bringing out for Soundwave — Devil You Know, Hatebreed, Metal Allegiance, and Soulfly — for a “4 prong tour”.
