UPDATE: 24/8/19
Drip World’s promoter has issued the following statement to Tone Deaf:
“Drip World is a transparent company, if we have any announcements to make that effect the public we will make them first on our social media platforms and to our databases. Our team doesn’t want to spend anymore time and energy dealing with rumours and speculations taking out of context, we just want all our teams focus to go towards building an amazing live concert experience.”
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Australia’s rocky history with hip-hop festivals has continued, as the mysteriously promoted and haphazardly advertised Drip World Festival has been officially postponed due to unforeseeable circumstances.
The Festival sent out notifications today that the show has been officially postponed, with news on updates yet to come. The show promised to be Australia’s “biggest urban festival”, and teased appearances from the likes of Migos, French Montana, Akon and Lil Baby.
Just today we wrote an article called “Drip World Festival – To Be or Not to Be”, because until now everything has been totally up in the air with the show. Ultimately, it seems like the fest was destined to not be, with Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane dates being officially postponed. It is unclear yet as to whether the concert will find a new date or just cancel completely.
“The odds seem stacked against Drip World, even more so when you consider that the Australian market hasn’t been able to support a traveling hip hop festival since Supafest,” we wrote.
And the history is in fact bleak. Supafest in 2010 was a promising new force to the festival market, but saw an untimely end with its snap cancellation in 2013. In the end there were more cancelled acts on the lineup than actual people playing.
Supafest unfortunately ended up a something that could have been, but never was. It begun with much of the same promises – even branding themselves as “Australia’s largest urban music festival,” which seems to be a cursed moniker, as Drip World also calls itself that.
In the same vein, 2013’s Rap City – headlined by Talib Kweli – faced cancellation due to ‘scheduling issues’. Also in 2013 was Movement Festival – headlined by the legendary Nas, Bliss N Eso, 2 Chainz and Joey Bada$$. And that too faced cancellation. We’re simply cursed.
Let’s not even mention the untimely death of Future Music Festival – which of course coincided with their new direction to incorporate more hip-hop acts onto their lineup such as party-starter Drake. Oh, and all of the rap acts playing non-hip-hop-centric festivals who have just up and cancelled, such as Migos cancelling Field Day or Childish Gambino pulling from a slew of Aussie dates.
News is yet to be spread on where Drip World will be going from here. Really it’s anyone’s guess.
