The organisers of St Jerome’s Laneway Festival may have already started the rumour mill for the lineup for next year’s Australian edition of the event, but you can forget any whispers over the acts playing what was to be the festival’s US return for Laneway Detroit.
“Despite the strong inaugural 2013 launch in the motor city, pulling over 7,500 patrons to the one-day festival on Saturday 14th September, the St Jerome’s organisers have cancelled Laneway Detroit 2014 owing to issues with “timing” and booking a high-calibre lineup, as The Music reports.
Laneway promoter Danny Rogers broke the news in a series of posts on Facebook, explaining that following the Detroit christening the team “sat down and planning began” for a 2014 follow-up.
“We tried to get the very few acts that we felt would be appropriate for Laneway and none of them were available,” explains Rogers.
“We had one that went all the way to the wire and then changed its mind at the very last minute – bless their beautiful heart too, they were under so much pressure to be everywhere and anywhere and something had to give,” he adds (we wonder who the mystery headliner was?) “We decided that we needed to be honest with ourselves and sit it out this year and review it again next year. ” “We tried to get the very few acts that we felt would be appropriate for Laneway and none of them were available.”
Rogers and the team intends to bring Laneway Detroit back for 2015 “and hopefully your will and support can bring us back into market.” The promoter also dismissed the option of relocating Laneway’s US leg to another American city, writing: “we have no intention of doing any other city in America unless Detroit can be part of it.”
Adding to Laneway’s international expansion into Singapore and Auckland, last year’s Detroit debut featured The National, Sigur Rós, Savages, Run The Jewels, Solange, and Aussies Chet Faker and Flume.
“Last year was an incredible show and all of you who were there know that we put our heart and soul into this,” says Rogers. “We delivered what I genuinely believe was the most awesome festival I have ever been part of.”
“Some of the first questions we asked ourselves were these: what did we learn from Laneway Detroit? We learned that people in Detroit are some of the most passionate people on the planet. Detroit people are very proud. And so giving. In 11 years it’s always been a curated event, but in Detroit we had to think differently.”
Rogers adding, “I wasn’t going to blow my partners money just for the sake of putting on an event.”
In another interview with the promoter from the time of Detroit’s launch, he also teased plans for Laneway to expand into a two-day event as well as other events in locations as far-flung as Croatia and Scotland. The festival was also present at this year’s SXSW, hosting a showcase with the likes of Glass Animals, D.D Dumbo, Perfect Pussy, and Kirin J. Callinan.
Organisers also reported back on their favourite acts from the Austin, Texas conference and kickstarting their very own Laneway 2015 lineup rumours in the process, following on from last February’s Aussie edition featuring Lorde, Vance Joy, Violent Soho, The Jezabels, Savages, Chvrches, and many more playing what our Tone Deaf Adelaide reporter hailed as “one of the finest and most diverse festivals that Australia has to offer.”
Laneway Festival 2014 Coverage
Brisbane: REVIEW | PHOTOS
Melbourne: REVIEW | PHOTOS
Sydney: REVIEW | PHOTOS
Adelaide: REVIEW | PHOTOS
Fremantle: REVIEW | PHOTOS
(Photo: Liam Cameron. Source: Laneway Festival 2014 Sydney Gallery)
