Well that was the quickest music festival cancellation ever. After announcing less than 3 weeks ago, the pin has been officially been pulled on the Kyle Sandilands hosted iHeartRadio Australia Music Festival.
Sandilands, who you might remember from such hits as vomiting live on air and asking Lorde if she was Taylor Swift’s lesbian lover, announced on air at the end of August that he and his radio co-host Jackie O are hosting a new music festival with their radio network, the Australian Radio Network.
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The event was due to have the likes of Miley Cyrus, X-Factor’s Redfoo, alongside locals such as rapper Miracle, pop rock band At Sunset, and DJ duo The Faders, descend on Sydney’s Allphones Arena for 6 punishing hours on 18th October.
The Australian Radio Network, which was running the event with promoters the Dainty Group, released a statement to SMH earlier this week stating: “Our objective for this first iHeartRadio Australia Music Festival was to create the very best experience possible for music lovers, and when this wasn’t possible, the difficult but the necessary decision was made to cancel.”
“This is as a consequence of the unavailability of another headline act, who was due to be announced this week,” organisers said, echoing similar comments made by promoter AJ Maddah about the lack of headliners available for large events.
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HeartRadio music festivals have been held in Las Vegas for the past few years and have seen the likes of Coldplay, Lorde, Jane’s Addiction, Childish Gambino, Weezer, and Calvin Harris.
Anyone who managed to actually buy tickets in the short window they were available and is willing to admit it can get a full refund from the point of purchase.
There’s been no word on which headliner it was that caused the demise of the festival, but we like to think organisers had their hearts set on Frenzal Rhomb.
In 2004, Sydney punk legend Frenzal Rhomb played AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ over the top of Jackie O’s MC shpiel at the Bassinthegrass festival in Darwin after she rocked up more than 9 hours late. “Jackie O what the fuck?” Frenzal’s Jay Whalley told the crowd according to FasterLouder. “ World Idol, Australian Idol, Popstars, fuck ‘em, fuck the fucking lot of them.”
Jackie O was reduced to tears, and Sandilands threatened to “bury the band”. The whole issue reached a crescendo when Whalley called up the station, which thanks to the magic of the internet you can relive again below.
