Ahead of her performance at this weekend’s Sounds Of The Suburbs festival, and as part of a co-headlining tour with Bleeding Knees Club and Harlem, US musician Colleen Green has been deported by Australian officials for attempting to enter the country on an incorrect visa.
Colleen Green took to Facebook yesterday from Los Angeles to explain to fans the reason why she was unable to perform in Australia this time around. “I left on Monday the 28th. I flew for 13 hours to Auckland, New Zealand. I had a 2 hour layover. I flew for another 3 hours to Melbourne,” she began. “I had no guitar, but a few pieces of luggage including a large rollie with some records and Colleen Green hats.”
“The promoter of my Australian tour told me he had secured a visa for me and to just say I’m visiting friends and everything would be fine. I really had no reason to doubt this as I have traveled all over the world to perform and have done so many times under the pretense of “tourism” with no incident.”
Read the entirety of Colleen Green’s Facebook post below.
Just in case that’s a little bit too much information to take in, the gist of it is that Green attempted to enter the country on the wrong visa. Instead of coming to Australia on a visa that would have allowed her to play music and therefore earn money during her time here, she instead tried to enter with a tourist visa, which is sort of frowned upon by immigration officials.
Of course, performing music in Australia is technically possible on a tourist visa, but isn’t particularly legal.
Despite this, Colleen Green did attempt to see the bright side of the whole situation, adding “because I didn’t have to wait in any of those wack ass lines, and I also got to board the plane first.” But unfortunately, it wasn’t all positives, since she states that she “felt like a totally busted criminal dummy, when all I had been trying to do was play music and see a new country.”
A spokesman for promoter Bone Soup spoke to The Sydney Morning Herald, explaining that they are “deeply saddened” by the ordeal. “Letting down an artist and having her experience what she has, as well as letting her fans down, is a terrible thing,” he said.
“This has been a harsh lesson and we have made a mistake that we will never make again. We are doing our best to allay the situation and reschedule a tour for the future.”
While no statements have been made by Bleeding Knees Club and Harlem, the bands she was supposed to be on tour with right now, their shows seem to be going ahead as planned. Likewise, Sounds Of The Suburbs is still happening on Sunday, so if you’re keen to see a massive lineup of brilliant local and international talent, be sure to head along.
In the meantime, check out Colleen Green’s ‘TV’, below.
Colleen Green Australian Tour 2017
Thursday, August 31st
The Curtin, Melbourne, VIC
Friday, September 1st
The Northern, Byron Bay, NSW
Saturday, September 2nd
The Foundry, Brisbane, QLD
Sunday, September 3rd
Sounds Of The Suburbs
Sutherland Carpark, Sutherland, NSW
Thursday, September 7th
The Grace Darling Hotel, Melbourne, VIC
