Despite assurances late last year that the festival was merely relocating from the busy calendar of events in February to the quieter December, promoters of Good Vibrations have officially canned plans to hold the festival in 2012.
In a statement to FasterLouder, promoter Justin Hemmes said, “We will not be going ahead with the Festival this year. We will be in touch in due course regarding plans for 2013.”
Responding the questions why the festival would be taking the year off Hemmes replied, “Competitive demand for artists resulting in higher artist fees, unpredictable weather and a shifting live music market.”
The festival suffered from underwhelming attendances in 2011, and ticket sales were not helped when headliners Cee Lo Green and Janelle Monae decided to pull out of the festival at the last minute.
Last year when Hemmes announced the festival would be delayed he also touched on the over saturated festival market saying, “It’s a very competitive market. There’s one hundred and one festivals on and there’s a lot of choice. Prices were very high for acts. There was a bidding war going on for acts which pushes the prices up.”
“Prices are inflated, demand is down. And I probably didn’t pick the market as well as I should have… you’ve gotta have one bad year to keep you honest.”
Other promoters who decided to push ahead with their events despite the climate surrounding the industry did so to mixed results. Splendour In The Grass for the first time in its history failed to sell out, and Big Day Out had a tough year with the lowest attendance in nearly a decade.
Others did it even tougher. Stonefest, was downgraded in October from their full lineup ,Rewind 80s Festival also failed to take off, the Great Southern Blues festival cut their losses, and Funk & Tunes Festival bit the dust. Mission To Launch also failed to launch with the festival collapsing due to ticket sales, and who could forget the disastrous Soundwave Revolution which fell over in a spectacular fashion just weeks out from the event.
