Following the 2014 dates for the Big Day Out being unveiled and the all-important lineup announcement set to drop at the end of the month, hype for the “lineup to end all lineups”, as Big Day Out organisers themselves put it, is building.

After Big Day Out organisers dropped some clues as to the headliners to expect come the July 31st announcement, a few more promoters have teased that this year the festival is truly putting the Big into the Big Day Out, which includes a $20 hike to the ticket price for next year’s edition.

New Zealand promoter Campbell Smith says that the new $185 asking price, the highest in the festival’s 21 year history, will be well worth it based on the huge bands the Big Day Out has in store, as FasterLouder points out.

The NZHerald quote Smith telling New Zealand radio station The Rock to expect “the best and biggest lineup we’ve ever had,” adding that “it crosses all the musical genres that you’d expect at the Big Day Out.”

“When you look at the headliners, the second slot, third slot and fourth slot are probably all festival headliners,” adds Smith of the touring festival’s return to New Zealand, which has secured a five year deal with Auckland’s 50,000 capacity Western Springs for the resurrected NZ leg of the festival.

The Western Springs move eschews the traditional home at Mt Smart Stadium, which had been the home to Big Day Out from 1994 to 2012, where a troubled financial run caused the festival to take a rest from New Zealand in 2013.

Despite the hyped lineup announcement, the NZHerald points out that many punters aren’t willing to pay the hefty $185 ticket price. “Clearly NOTHING was learned from the 2012 debacle,” wrote one punter on Twitter, while another grumbled in query: “Big Day Out tickets plated in gold?”

In a previous response to the $185 price increase, Big Day Out CEO Adam Zammit revealed that it was to accommodate a bigger lineup with three headliners.


Even a certain rival festival promoter who’s no stranger to massive lineups is convinced of Big Day Out’s hype. Soundwave/Harvest/Warped Tour promoter AJ Maddah has said the festival’s 2014 bill is “SUPERB“, taking to his fertile twitter feed to respond to a comment that the Big Day Out bill was a “challenge to [Soundwave] 2014 lineup?”:


Meanwhile, fellow Big Day Out promoter Ken West has dropped his own hints about the festival’s potential headliners, confirming it won’t be previous bill-toppers Neil Young and Kanye West, as well as ruling out fellow hip hop heavyweight Jay-Z. But they are still mightily impressive, he says; “I was hoping for one ‘White Whale’, managed to get two and ended up with three.”

Budding headline sleuths or fans looking for a Big Day Out clue trail could do a lot worse than look at this year’s lineups for Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza as both American festivals are organised by Big Day Out partners C3 Presents. Which throws the likes of The Cure, The Black Keys, and Deadmau5 in the mix.

Then there’s the ever-elusive Blur, with the reunited Brtipop icons having been absent from Australian shores since 1997 and certainly fit both West’s ‘White Wale’ comment and Zammit’s description of a band that haven’t played an Aussie festival before. Artists with new albums out before the end of the year would be a good fit for a summer festival promotional trail down under too. Such as Arctic Monkeys, who played Big Day Out in 2009 and drop their latest, AM, in September, and Arcade Fire, who played Big Day Out in 2008 and have confirmed their new album, produced by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, for an October release date, as NME reports.

All will be revealed by the end of the month, so start placing your bets.

Big Day Out 2014 Dates & Tickets

Lineup Announcement: 31st July

Friday, 17th January
Western Springs Stadium, Auckland

Sunday, 19th January
Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast

Friday, 24th January
Melbourne, venue TBC

Sunday, 26th January & Monday 27th January
Sydney, venue TBC

Friday, 31st January
Adelaide, venue TBC (potentially Bonython Park)

Sunday, 2nd February
Perth, venue TBC

You can get your hands on the $185 all-inclusive 2014 Big Day Out (Australian) tickets here:

Limited souvenir tickets will be available via an exclusive presale at all General Pants Co. stores from Thursday 1st August – check generalpants.com.au for your local stores opening hours.

Big Day Out membership presale commences 9am Friday 2nd August via bigdayout.com

The Official On Sale commences via bigdayout.com 
Gold Coast: 9am (local time) Wednesday 7 August
Sydney x 2: 9am (local time) Thursday 8 August
Melbourne, Adelaide & Perth: 9am (local time) Friday 10 August

You can check out our coverage of Big Day Out 2013 below:

Sydney: FESTIVAL REVIEW | PHOTO GALLERY
Gold Coast: FESTIVAL REVIEW | PHOTO GALLERY
Adelaide: FESTIVAL REVIEW | PHOTO GALLERY
Melbourne: FESTIVAL REVIEW | PHOTO GALLERY
Perth: PHOTO GALLERY

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