It’s a busy time for music festival announcements, following on from the Big Day Out 2014 lineup dropping, many more major music festivals have revealed their hand – either officially (Meredith, Falls, Festival Of The Sun, Melbourne Festival, the Soundwave/Harvest/Warped triple threat) or unofficially (the first act for Groovin The Moo? Washed Out for Laneway?).
Now another major player has had their hand forced in the first of what organisers are teasing to be one of their biggest lineups yet.
“Every year we work hard to up the ante on the lineup we deliver,” wrote Future Music Festival organisers last week of the annual March music fiesta, “…and I gotta say we are looking good to hit the ball right out of the park when we announce next year’s blockbuster!” Though the Future Music Festival 2014 lineup isn’t due for some time yet – typically announced around late September/October – a band has let slip of their place on the lineup early.
It looks like Iranian born producer Dubfire will be the first of the electronic contingent announced for Future 2014, with the techno veteran telling a fan on twitter that he’d be in Australia “March 2014” in a post that has since been deleted, according to Stoney Roads, all but confirms his place on the lineup given his previous appearances with Future.
A 2014 edition slot would mark the third time that Ali Shirazinia aka Dubfire has played the festival, including his first appearance on the 2010 bill and a return in 2012 alongside Aphex Twin and Die Antwoord at Future’s techno tent.
It may be some ways off, but there’s already been plenty of whispers about the Future Music Festival 2014 lineup, with the electronic artist names floating about, including the million-dollar-earning Deadmau5, the disco-dubstep of Skream, and a hopeful return from those South African purveyors of ‘freeeky’ goodness, Die Antwoord.
On the rock side of the coin, one of the bigger names to be bandied about is The Cure. Robert Smith and his not-so-merry men are sporadically back on the music festival circuit this year, with their name tossed up with nearly every major Australian lineup in the last six months with none yet to snag the goth rock forefathers.
They were originally pegged for the Splendour In The Grass bill and (incorrectly) for the Big Day Out 2014 lineup given their presence on the Austin City Limits lineup for this October, a bill that was put together by Big Day Out partners C3 Presents. There’s an outside chance they could be part of the second Harvest lineup announcement – promoter AJ Maddah having noted the band were on his personal wishlist for Harvest and they certainly fit his promise of “a hell of an announcement” for the next round of bands to be added to the bill, expected to drop in the next few weeks.
Maddah has also predicted a return from another set of rock veterans who were also slated as potential Big Day Out headliners, Depeche Mode, in the near future, claiming the band’s current world tour for their latest alum Delta Machine could check into Australia next year, saying “they’re coming. I’m not involved.” Perhaps a March visit for Future Musical Festival 2014 would best suit Depeche Mode? It would also mark 20 years since the band’s last Australian visit, as FasterLouder points out, playing a headline tour in March 1994 that took in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
The Cure and Depeche Mode rumours also seem a good fit for Future’s tradition of bringing over classic UK bands in recent years, with New Order headlining in 2012 while the reunited Stone Roses topped this year’s bill that included The Prodigy, Bloc Party, Azealia Banks, fun., The Temper Trap, and Dizzee Rascal.
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