This probably won’t come as a shock to many of you, but now you can hear it straight from the horse’s mouth – Soundwave Revolution will not be returning. AJ Maddah broke the news on his favourite soapbox Twitter according to FasterLouder who spotted the tweet:
@iamnotshouting
AJ @Smithy232323 no, but there’ll be lots of great tours this year
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Billed as the sister event to the popular Soundwave Festival, the Revolution unfortunately came unstuck before things even got started and became synonymous with a year marred by festival cancellations and collapses.
The festival experienced difficulty in securing suitable venues in the lead up to the line up announcement, particularly in Melbourne where the location was on a dog track out in Melton, some 30 + kilometres from town, which ensured the festival off to a some what shaky start.
A line up announcement of Van Halen, Alice Cooper, Hole, the Sisters of Mercy, Panic At The Disco, Danzig and Machinehead amongst others appeared to steady the ship and get fans excited, but rumours of sluggish ticket sales amidst an oversaturated festival market and increasing concerns about the economy didn’t bode well for the festival’s success.
The final straw appeared to be the organisers struggling with headliners Van Halen, with reports of internal strife and/or difficulties in dealing with the band’s management swirling around the industry. Initially it appeared that organisers were going to announce two replacement headliners but reportedly when the replacement also cancelled before they announced the organisers were forced to scupper the festival.
Some questioned why the festival couldn’t go ahead as announced, wondering if it was not just the cancellation of Van Halen but a lack of ticket sales that had prompted the cancellation.
But they weren’t the only ones who suffered in 2011. Stonefest, was downgraded in October from their full lineup ,Rewind 80s Festival also failed to take off, the Great Southern Blues festival cut their losses, and Funk & Tunes Festival bit the dust.
Good Vibrations saw the writing on the wall early on and chose to bow out of the market for a while, but Big Day Out decided to take the gamble which didn’t pay off the way they may have hoped with events in Auckland, Adelaide, and Perth all being downgraded shortly after tickets went on sale. Mission To Launch also failed to launch with the festival collapsing due to ticket sales.
