Beirut Pulls Out Of Remaining Harvest 2012 Dates Due To Illness

The organisers behind Harvest Festival have some bad news for lovers of Baltic-influenced folk pop planning on attending the Sydney and Brisbane showings this weekend, on Saturday 17 November and Sunday 18 November respectively.

Following the cancellation of their Sydney sideshow due to illness, Beirut has now been forced to pull out of the touring festival entirely.

An statement issued by Harvest Festival today reads:

Due to illness, Beirut have had to cancel their remaining two Harvest performances. The band would like to apologize to their fans and promise to be back in the future.

Though Zachary Francis Condon and his band managed to deliver their beautifully rustic music at Harvest in Melbourne last weekend eyewitnesses say that Condon was ‘a little off’, their sideshow at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Adelaide wasn’t without it’s shortcomings either – perhaps due to Condon’s oncoming illness.

Our Tone Deaf reviewer wrote of the event that “the passionate urgency that many of Beirut’s songs are famous for was lost slightly with the stripped-down musical background of the set, and the richness of each brassy melody was dampened in the intimate surroundings.”

Beirut cancelled their Sydney show due to illness, with the promoters Handsome Tours offering full refunds to disappointed fans and apologising for the inconvenience.

Though promoters also sought to quell any speculation that the mysterious illness would prevent Beirut from performing at the remaining Harvest Festival dates this weekend in Sydney and Brisbane, the unfortunate has now occurred.

Harvest Organiser have already jigged the running times for the last two events, with the alternative mariachi-hop-pop stylings of Cake - a definite highlight of the Melbourne leg- fulfilling Beirut’s slot on the Great Lawn main stage in Sydney, and a much-needed break for the Brisbane show at the Botanical Gardens.

Revised times are as follows:

SYDNEY:

The Great Lawn
8:30 – 10:00pm: Sigur Ros
6:45 – 8:00pm: Beck
***5:15 – 6:15pm: Cake***
3:45 – 4:45pm: Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane
2:00 – 3:00pm: The Dandy Warhols
12:30 – 1:30pm: Los Campesinos!
11:30 – 12:00pm: Winter People

The Windmill Stage
9:00 – 10:00pm: Santigold
7:30 – 8:30pm: Grizzly Bear
6:00 – 7:00pm: Ben Folds Five
3:00 – 4:00pm: Silversun Pickups
1:30 – 2:30pm: Dexys
12:20 – 1:00pm: The War on Drugs
11:30 – 12:00pm: River City Extension

BRISBANE:

The Great Lawn
8:30 – 10:00pm: Sigur Ros
6:45 – 8:00pm: Beck
(Beirut cancelled)
3:45 – 4:45pm: Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane
2:00 – 3:00pm: The Dandy Warhols
12:30 – 1:30pm: Los Campesinos!
11:30 – 12:00pm: Winter People

The Windmill Stage
9:00 – 10:00pm: Santigold
7:30 – 8:30pm: Grizzly Bear
6:00 – 7:00pm: Ben Folds Five
4:30 – 5:30pm: Cake
3:00 – 4:00pm: Silversun Pickups
1:30 – 2:30pm: Dexys
12:20 – 1:00pm: The War on Drugs
11:30 – 12:00pm: River City Extension