Soundwave/Big Day Out promoter AJ Maddah is never one to take things lying down, so it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that he’s hit back publicly at the organisers of the cancelled Homebake festival, who partly laid blame for the event’s demise on Maddah’s own cancelled Harvest Festival.
Homebake 2013 promoters issued a statement yesterday blaming a poor reaction to the new three-day format planned on the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House to celebrate the long-running Aussie festival’s 18th birthday as contributing to the event’s cancellation.
The change in venue and format was prompted, say Homebake organisers, by a potential clash with the then-scheduled Harvest Festival at The Domain.
“What is achingly ironic is the reason that forced the change in venue [and with it the format] cancelled shortly before Homebake 2013’s launch,” read the statement, “but by then it was simply too late to revert back to our true home. All in all, heartbreaking stuff…”
But speaking to Fairfax media, Maddah claims Homebake’s team knew in advance of Harvest’s change of location and that Homebake’s “key stakeholder”, promoter Michael Chugg, had agreed with him that the venue shift would help both festivals.
“This is the lamest excuse I’ve heard for a festival cancellation and I’ve had a few lame ones myself,” Maddah told Sydney Morning Herald. “We were both pleased with the cost savings and sharing infrastructure costs. How did Harvest being at the Domain force them to move when all parties were happy to have both events there?” “How did Harvest being at the Domain force them to move when all parties were happy to have both events there?” – AJ Maddah
Maddah pulled the plug on Harvest back on 18th September, stating “I didn’t book a good enough festival”, shortly before it was revealed that he’d bought a stake into the Big Day Out. News that arrived the same day that Homebake confirmed its plans to commemorate its 18th birthday, and Sydney Opera House’s 40th anniversary, with its new three-day format, and a lineup featuring You Am I, Bernard Fanning, Paul Kelly, Gurrumul, The Presets, and more.
But among Hombake’s cancellation announcement were claims that “it has become apparent based on the feedback from social media sites and the box office that the traditional Homebake fans have rejected this change in format from one day to three nights and the change in venue.”
Reactions to the Homebake 2013 lineup on social media following the event’s cancellation confirm as much, featuring a mix of responses, ranging from punters sad at the event’s demise while others criticised the lineup for being weak while stating that the ticket prices – starting from $118 per day – were too expensive.
Both the quality of a lineup and festival ticket prices were cited as the primary deciding factors for punters purchasing festival tickets in a recent industry survey that analysed the current Aussie festival climate, which has been experiencing a dramatic downturn in recent months.
Last month alone, there was the cancellation of Harvest and Pyramid Rock and Big Day Out’s second Sydney date due to poor ticket sales, as well as issues with the inaugural Boomerang and ATP’s Release The Bats. Then there’s the likely cancellation of Summadayze as messy liquidation proceedings get underway for Future Entertainment Pty Ltd, as their flagship Future Music Festival is taken under the wing of Michael Gudinski’s Mushroom Group.
Fat As Butter kicks off this weekend, while festival promoters Mothership Music enter liquidation, and then there’s the alarming number of troubled hip hop festivals and events, including the cancellation of Live Nation’s Movement festival, Sprung’s Melbourne leg, the Rap City tour, and Supafest’s postponement, amidst $17 m owed to creditors and a touted relaunch.
This week also saw reports surfacing that Big Day Out’s future was in jeopardy and looking down the barrel of a $10 million loss next year, only for the festival’s top brass lashing out at Fairfax journalists, rubbishing the reports of its financial troubles.
All of which may serve to demonstrate that the burgeoning market of the early oughties is a bubble that’s beginning to burst as the festival market resets and adjusts.
