While we’re accustomed to seeing Australian music festivals, no matter how highly anticipated, cancelled at the last minute, the recent cancellation of new Melbourne event The Bureau has left many punters with unanswered questions.
The event, which was set to take place at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, was billed as “Melbourne’s biggest end-of-year break-up party”, featuring a lineup that included The Temptations, C+C Music Factory, Pseudo Echo, Charles Bradley, and more.
The event hit a speed bump early on, with veteran hip-hop crew Salt N Pepa, originally slated for the lineup, pulling out days after the first announcement. A statement indicated the pair could not secure any other gigs to make the trip “worth there [sic] while”.
Organisers then faced a mild controversy after punters reacted less-than-favourably to their tongue-in-cheek VIP package. Billed as “the most expensive ticket to an Australian music festival”, the package came in at a cool $375,000.
As FasterLouder reports, tickets to the event were heavily discounted early last week. LastTix dropped the price for general passes from $89 to less than $50 and cut prices for access to the VIP Marquee from $240 to just $99.
Then on Friday reports surfaced that The Bureau had been postponed or possibly even cancelled. According to FasterLouder, promoters Dagger Wolf insisted The Bureau had been postponed until March next year and moved to a more “intimate” venue.
The festival had apparently been postponed “due to an unconfirmed deal with Sidney Myer Music Bowl”. Meanwhile, The Music reports that Dagger Wolf cited a “lack of support and ticket sales” as causing the apparent postponement.
However, a statement released by the Arts Centre Melbourne, who manage the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, disputed this. According to their website, there are no plans to bring The Bureau back and all ticket-holders are entitled to a full refund.
[include_post id=”463175″]
“The Bureau, to be presented by Dagger Wolf Bureau, at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl Melbourne, will not proceed as planned on 11 December, 2015. As there are no plans to reschedule the event, all ticket-holders will be offered a full refund,” the statement read.
If punters weren’t already scratching their heads at the conflicting statements, The Bureau’s official Facebook page has mysteriously disappeared and none of the acts on the lineup have acknowledged the cancellation through social media or management.
Publicists for The Bureau have confirmed to The Music that an official statement is currently in the works. In the meantime, ticket-holders can get more info on how to process their refunds via the Arts Centre website.
