Less than a year on from buying a 50% stake into the festival, Big Day Out promoter AJ Maddah has allegedly pulled out of the partnership with American co-promoters C3 Presents, making the Texan festival company the sole owners of the long-running Australian festival.
According to documents obtained by Music Feeds, Arash ‘AJ’ Maddah stepped down from his position and transferred his stake in the Big Day Out over to C3 Presents. A of 4th June this year, the documents reveal, all shares in B.D.O. Presents Pty Ltd held by Madjo BDO Pty Ltd were transferred entirely over to C3 Presents LLC – the same day Maddah ceased to continue his role as the Big Day Out Director.
Blake Kendrick, the same person listed as the festival’s Assistant Accountant, is listed as the newly appointed director of BDO Presents, while the festival company’s new registered address belongs to a law firm based in Australia.
It’s news that’s as sudden and surprising as when Maddah first purchased a stake into the Big Day Out last September (shortly after the cancellation of his own Harvest music festival) from previous promoter and former rival Ken West. According to documents…. Arash ‘AJ’ Maddah stepped down from his position and transferred his stake in the Big Day Out over to C3 Presents…
West had reportedly approached the Soundwave boss personally to join the Big Day Out brand, in order for him to “hand over the reigns” and it was believed he would an “equal” financial interest in the festival while continuing to assist Big Day Out. But current documents shows that two lots of financial shares in BDO Presents were transferred from West and another company to Maddah in November 2013.
Those shares have since all been transferred from Maddah to C3 Presents, with documentation “clearly naming Arash Maddah and Kenneth West as “previous directors” of BDO Presents,” according to Music Feeds.
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Maddah had previously admitted that this year’s Big Day Out had suffered “ugly” financial losses and low ticket sales but had indicated that plans to revive the brand would enable it to once become “a brand people will come back to.”
A Fairfax report alleged that the Big Day Out’s future was in serious doubt after facing losses of between $8 to $15 million from lax attendance figures, sourcing anonymous insiders who speculated that a lawsuit may erupt between Maddah and C3 Presents over losses accrued from the national one-day event.
Maddah refuted the allegations at the time, dismissing there was any souring in the relationship with C3, calling Fairfax “enablers of gossip… they will take any old rubbish from any idiot [and] run with it completely irresponsibly;” just one volley in a vicious war of words that broke out between the Big Day Out and Fairfax earlier this year.
In a later interview in which Maddah discussed the moment ‘Big Day Out fucked their brand’, he admitted that “the event was seriously wobbly” before he bought into the company, revealing that the festival was “on the verge” of cancelling before he entered the picture.
“[I] got involved for very selfish reasons,” Maddah told Triple J’s Hack program in February. “All my happy memories from my childhood are from the Big Day Out, from Livid Festival. It was the one or two days of the year where I could get away from my shitty home life or whatever else.”
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The news follows Maddah revealing this morning that the Vans Warped Tour had been cancelled and would not be returning for 2014 as it was to be a “US only” event. It also comes shortly after Maddah’s discussing the future of the Big Day Out with the Full Metal Lockdown podcast – the same in which he revealed the real reason behind cancelling 2011’s Soundwave Revolution.
In response to podcast host Tom Roberts’ query about whether Big Day Out 2015 would be “less hipster,” Maddah said “that’s one of those questions that’s really tough to answer … Big Day Out is more about what’s happening currently and it obviously has a totally different identity [to Soundwave]. I’ve always loved the Big Day Out for being the Big Day Out. I’m not going to try to change it. We’re just going to try to improve.”
Check out our Big Day Out 2014 coverage below.
Gold Coast: REVIEW | PHOTO GALLERY
Melbourne: REVIEW | PHOTO GALLERY
Sydney: REVIEW | PHOTO GALLERY
Adelaide: REVIEW | PHOTO GALLERY
