The cancellation of the 2015 instalment of long-running Australian festival institution the Big Day Out left many Aussie music fans hanging with a lot of unanswered questions. However, the central question, i.e. ‘What the hell?’, was soon answered by former co-owner AJ Maddah.
According to the Soundwave founder, the Big Day Out was “taking a year off” due to a shortage of appropriate headliners. Maddah claimed that besides Foo Fighters, who would be preoccupied with a headline tour, there was “fuck all out there” to top the 2015 Big Day Out roster.
But it now appears that the dearth of headliners is a global phenomenon and not just isolated to Down Under. As Billboard reports, the organizers of the UK’s Sonsiphere festival have announced that this year’s event will not go ahead due to a crowded summer calendar restricting their ability to secure a quality lineup.
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“Team Sonisphere reluctantly confirm that Sonisphere will not take place in the U.K. in 2015,” reads a statement on the Sonisphere website. “We’ve been working hard to get a lineup that we felt was good enough, but also on a weekend which would avoid other events that we know rock fans would want to support.”
“Unfortunately our last irons in the fire have just been extinguished and it’s clear that we won’t be in a position to run the event this year,” organisers continue. “We’ve said in the past that Sonisphere will only go ahead if we feel it is going to be good enough and that hasn’t changed.”
No acts had been confirmed for the 2015 event and organisers are now looking forward to 2016, when they promise the popular heavy metal festival intends to return. Meanwhile, Muse are set to headline the Switzerland leg of Sonisphere and the Sonisphere website indicates an Italian leg will take place in June.
Last year’s UK event took place 4th-6th July at the legendary Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire, with a lineup headlined by Metallica, Iron Maiden, and The Prodigy, and also featuring Limp Bizkit, Deftones, Alice in Chains, Frank Turner, Mastodon, HIM, Slayer, and the Dropkick Murphys.
