Along with handling the “ugly” financial losses of Big Day Out and putting the finishing touches to Soundwave 2014, promoter AJ Maddah has also begun work on the third major event in his festival folio.
Maddah was responsible for the return of The Vans Warped Tour to Australia last year, bringing the iconic punk festival Down Under for the first time in nearly a decade for a six-date national tour last November and December.
The promoter has now shared details regarding the Warped Tour’s return for later this year, and while it hasn’t been officially confirmed for a comeback, Maddah has said that the 2014 edition will lose one of its dates due to poor attendance.
Following in the footsteps of Big Day Out losing its Perth (and potentially Adelaide) editions for 2015, Maddah has stated that poor attendance at the Coffs Harbour Warped Tour last year would mean dropping the coastal leg of the festival.
Last month, Maddah tweeted that “Sadly Coff was an attendance disaster” confirming in a more recent post that the 1,800 punters that turned out to catch the likes of The Offspring, Parkway Drive, Millencolin, and The Amity Affliction at the Coffs Harbour Showground wasn’t enough to ensure it’s profitability.
@jacobellevsen1 Fuck no! You can’t put on an outdoor show with $90 tickets for 1800 people.
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) February 9, 2014
The same goes for Canberra unfortunately, with Maddah explaining that it likewise had “very poor” crowd numbers which would mean scrapping a return for the ACT leg of Warped. But in response to a fan asking if the Canberra loss meant rubbing all regional dates from the Warped itinerary, Maddah replied, “not necessarily. But it does rule out places where not many kids turned up!”
@Prosphetics Sadly the attendance last year was very poor, so I’m afraid not.
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) February 11, 2014
@JoshBarakat we’d go a week later. Byron instead of Coffs. Different site in Sydney. — AJ (@iamnotshouting) December 7, 2013
The future of the Australian Vans Warped Tour will be discussed in April, according to Maddah, who revealed he’s going to “see the boss” – Warped founder and co-promoter Kevin Lyman – “…and we’ll decide then,” he tweeted. Even though a Vans Warped Tour 2014 is yet to be locked in, Maddah has already mentioned a couple of bands he’d like to invite to appear on the lineup, as MusicFeeds points out. Social Distortion could be asked for “Warped this year or [Soundwave] next year,” speculated the promoter last month, along with namechecking US pop punks Patent Pending (“I fucking love those guys!”) and Aussie ska veterans Area 7 as potential Warped candidates.
@ThatsItIGuess Yeah. I’ll go see the boss in April and we’ll decide then — AJ (@iamnotshouting) February 7, 2014
“I’m pretty confident we’re going to go back to Adelaide,” Maddah told Triple J. “Obviously I can’t make the decision on the Big Day Out by myself, I need to speak to my partners and then need to go through the financials of this year which are obviously pretty bad, but I love Adelaide,” he added, noting that under Big Day Out’s current East Coast touring layout “we can definitely keep Adelaide in that model.”
Meanwhile, Maddah is putting together the final set times for Soundwave 2014 (following losing Megadeth from the lineup) and has confirmed a change of venue for the closing date in Perth, following in the footsteps of Big Day Out and its last-minute venue change following ongoing battles with the anti-festival attitudes of Claremont Council.
Warped Tour 2013 Coverage
Melbourne: REVIEW | PHOTOS
Sydney: REVIEW | PHOTOS
Brisbane: PHOTOS
