Last year the Vans Warped Tour returned to Australia for the first time in over a decade thanks to Soundwave boss and Big Day Out promoter AJ Maddah, but it now looks like his festival folio just got one event lighter.

Maddah had already indicated he was at work on the popular punk and hardcore festival’s return Down Under back in February, planning a shakeup for this year’s edition that could lose legs in Canberra and Coffs Harbour owing to poor attendance figures.

All plans for Warped Tour 2014 were to be discussed in April, Maddah tweeted to fans, revealing he was off to “see the boss”, Warped founder and co-promoter Kevin Lyman, and “we’ll decide then.” Turns out the decision is that nobody is going to see a Vans Warped Tour 2014.

Maddah has now confirmed that the festival’s return is “unlikely”, as FasterLouder reports.

The decision may not be final, but could be down to the poor financial returns of certain dates of the Vans Warped Tour last year, which featured the likes of The Offspring, Parkway Drive, Millencolin, The Amity Affliction, and Tonight Alive.

Maddah previously described the Coffs Harbour leg as an “attendance disaster” with only 1,800 patrons, confirming its demise to a fan by explaining “you can’t put on an outdoor show with $90 tickets for 1,800 people.” Likewise, the ACT leg had “very poor” crowd numbers.

Similarly poor attendance figures also plagued certain dates of Maddah’s other flagship events – Soundwave and Big Day Out – earlier this year. Maddah previously described the Coffs Harbour leg as an “attendance disaster” with only 1,800 patrons

The Big Day Out’s low ticket sales (compared to previous years) resulted in an “ugly” financial fallout, as Maddah revealed, leading to the decision to scrap the festival’s return to Perth – citing the high costs of travel and staging and ongoing battles with local and state government as killing Big Day Out’s future in the WA capital, while its presence in Adelaide was also put into contention.

Maddah has since confirmed that no matter where Big Day Out heads next year, the high ticket prices would be going down. Specifically with “a $150-$160 ticket. Rather than a $190 ticket,” as the promoter recently revealed (along with the moment that Big Day Out “fucked their brand”).

This year’s Perth Soundwave was also the last to be hosted out West, a decision that “devastated” the festival promoter even as he declared “[I] will never set foot in Perth again.” Since then, Maddah confirmed that the leg drew “around 20K (punters) meaning Perth leg lost around $2M.”

The silver lining of the festival scaling back to “East Coast only” – like Big Day Out – means cheaper ticket prices (roughly by about $20) for patrons in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney – but maybe not Adelaide (following battles with local councils over volume breaches).

In more positive news, Maddah has confirmed that the Soundwave 2015 lineup “is coming along quite rapidly” with rumours already heating up for the hard and heavy event; names tossed about already include Disturbed, Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Fear Factory, Social Distortion, Papa Roach, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, Opeth, Lamb Of God, and many more. But just don’t expect anything official for a few months yet…

Vans Warped Tour 2013 Coverage

Melbourne: REVIEW | PHOTOS
Sydney: REVIEW | PHOTOS
Brisbane: PHOTOS

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