Organisers of the Vans Warped Tour 2013 are set to expand the festival’s lineup by maxing six announcements in six days, but this particular announcement is one the festival was not wanting to make.
Punk fans in Western Australia are already missing out on a Perth leg of the Warped Tour as it travels the country this November/December, but despite plans for bands on the lineup to play sideshows in the WA capital, Warped promoter AJ Maddah has revealed that all plans have “gone to shit.”
Shows from The Offspring, Millencolin, Reel Big Fish, Hatebreed, and others were touted, but Maddah revealed in a tweet on Monday that “all Perth #warpedAU side show plans have gone to shit due to astronomical travel costs.” Adding that he would attempt to organise “a couple #SW14 (Soundwave 2014) Sidewaves to make up to Perth.”
Subsequent tweets revealed that the promoter was “still working to salvage” a Warped sideshow from Hatebreed, but that fans of festival headliners The Offspring were out of luck.
@greggo304 No Offspring show at all now. Sorry. They have tons of shit & big crew. We couldn't afford travel & freight.
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) November 4, 2013
By way of explanation, Maddah blamed Western Australia’s mining boom as having “driven travel costs way up!”
It’s not the first time the Perth-bred promoter has had troubles presenting events in Western Australia due to finances and logistics. Earlier this year, Maddah blamed the WA Government for Perth’s Warped snub, reasoning that it was the state’s stuffy regulations, combined with residents making noise complaints, that were cheating music fans out of visiting tours.
“State laws have made it just about impossible to do all ages shows, and what’s that done exactly is that a whole couple of generations of kids have missed out on going to shows when they’re young,” said Maddah in July. “Therefore [they] have grown up being into shit music, quite frankly, in terms of what’s on at [Mix] 94.5fm and various other stations in Perth.”
Transport and travel costs were also a deciding factor; “It’s just the fact that we would need to have x number of days off going there and x numbers of days off coming back,” explained Maddah. “It means we would have to try and extend the tour to get there on a weekend date, and it just didn’t add up.”
While the majority of the Warped sideshows are in trouble, the already announced sideshow from Simple Plan, with fellow Warped act Tonight Alive, would be going ahead unaffected, as it is being presented by Frontier Touring and not Maddah, as the promoter pointed out to a fan.
In more positive news, festival-goers for Warped’s six-date run along the East Coast into Adelaide can expect the addition of local bands unique to each stop-over in the coming days. In the first of a touted six announcements, the Brisbane leg saw the addition of Aversions Crown, Take Us To Vegas, and D At Sea, with Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Coffs Harbour, and Canberra to be revealed.
The news follows the second Warped Tour 2013 lineup announcement, which is likely to push the Melbourne leg into a sell-out. Following on from announcing a change of venue in Melbourne to avoid a clash with Stereosonic patrons, putting the event back in Birrarung Marr, Maddah reported that “just under 3,000″ tickets were left for the Melbourne Warped. “I really thought Sydney would sell out 1st,” tweeted Maddah.
Warped Tour attendees have also been offered the chance to jump the queues at the gates, while still feeling good about it, by dropping off a donation at the Warped entry points as part of the Warped Tour Food Drive.
Vans Warped Tour 2013 Lineup
Brisbane Warped Tour lineup additions
Aversions Crown
Take Us To Vegas
D At Sea
Joining the already announced lineup of:
The Offspring
Parkway Drive
Simple Plan
Millencolin
New Found Glory
The Used
Reel Big Fish
Hatebreed
Tonight Alive
The Summer Set
Kids In Glass Houses
We Came As Romans
Man Overboard
Confession
Crown The Empire
The Dangerous Summer
For All Those Sleeping
Veara
Anarbor
Hands Like Houses
Mallory Knox
Buried In Verona
RDGLDGRN
Hand Of Mercy
Vans Warped Tour 2013 Athletes
STEVE CABALLERO / RENTON MILLAR / OMAR HASSAN / NEAL HENDRIX / PEDRO BARROS / VI KAKINHO / MURILO PERES BMX / DENNIS McCOY / COCO ZURITA
Vans Warped Tour 2013 Dates
Friday 29th November Brisbane RNA Showgrounds
Saturday 30th November Coffs Harbour Showground
Sunday 1st December Barangaroo, Sydney
Friday 6th December Exhibition Park, Canberra
Saturday 7th December Birrarung Marr, Melbourne
Sunday 8th December Adelaide Showgrounds, Adelaide
Tickets and info head to http://vanswarpedtouraustralia.com/
