Future Music Festival Asia Denied Licence Over Drug Concerns

UPDATE 09/03/15: Organisers of Future Music Festival Asia have confirmed the 2015 event, scheduled to be held on March 13 & 14 in Singapore, is officially cancelled.

At the same time as Future Music Festival makes its way across Australia, authorities in Singapore have turned down Future Music Festival Asia’s appeal for a public entertainment licence to hold the festival there this year.

The festival was scheduled to be held from the 13th to the 14th March, following the Australia national dates, but was put in question recently with reports circling about difficulties in securing the appropriate licenses.

Reports Channel News Asia, promoters were already twice denied a public entertainment licence to hold the event here, with authorities citing “serious concerns” over potential drug abuse at the event. Future Music Festival Asia organisers announced this week that they were lodging further appeals for the festival to proceed and even perpetuated the hashtag ‪#‎KeepFMFAAlive‬.

Now they have revealed their appeals have again been denied. “We are extremely disappointed that our appeal to the Ministry of Home Affairs to organise Future Music Festival Asia 2015 (FMFA15) in Singapore has been unsuccessful. We can confirm that we have received the official rejection of our appeal,” wrote organisers in a statement on Facebook.

“Despite having put in place a robust event, security, safety and medical management plan which has been developed alongside both local and international experts with a combined 50 years of experience in running similar large-scale events, our Public Entertainment License has not been granted.”

Future Music Festival Asia came under scrutiny last year when they were forced to cancel the third day of the event, held in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, following reports that up to six people had died from drug overdoses at the event.

“Regarding concerns the authorities may have about the drug-related incidents that took place in Malaysia last year, we reiterate that these were isolated incidents that took place outside Singapore, which cannot and do not carry any implication that FMFA is linked to drug use or drug abuse,” wrote organisers today.

A reported 15,000 – 20,000 tickets have already been sold to the Singapore 2015 festival which boasted a lineup that included Avicii, The Prodigy, Fat Boy Slim and Afrojack. In their statement organisers say they are “assessing all options and formulating our next course of action” and will announce full details in the coming days.

Photos: The Prodigy – Future Music 2015, Sydney 28/02/15. Photographed by Maria Boyadgis