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Big Day Out cancelled for 2015 as C3 Presents takes complete ownership
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 26 June 2014
Big Day Out, the Australasian touring festival, and probably one of the highest profile Southern Hemisphere festivals over the years, will not return in 2015, and its long-term future seems far from assured.
The news follows a deal that seemingly makes US-based Lollapalooza-maker C3 Presents the sole owner of Big Day Out, it having bought out co-owner AJ Maddah (and having already acquired half the event from Vivian Lees back in 2011). Following much speculation about the future of the festival, it put out a statement yesterday saying: “While we intend to bring back the festival in future years, we can confirm there will not be a Big Day Out in 2015”.
After rumours of the 2014 editions of the festival having made multi-million dollar losses due to poor ticket sales, promoters had already confirmed that there would be no Perth date in 2015. Then the operators of the event’s other sites started to confirm to local media that no dates had been confirmed for next year there either. It also seems that most of the staffers who have worked on the festival in recent years have now departed the Big Day Out company.
Quite what the future might hold beyond 2015 isn’t clear, though it seems unlikely any statement on that will be made anytime soon.
