Another Festival Cancellation: The Soundscape Festival Tasmania

Another festival has been cancelled; this time it’s Tasmania’s Soundscape Festival. Again, it’s blamed on poor ticket sales. While it’s not always possible to sell out every festival this summer, it seems like it’s been a pretty poor year for most events.

Earlier this week, Rewind 80s Festival cancelled their festival after a week of controversial decisions made by organisers finally put an end to it. Local festivals such as Raggamuffin, Funk N Grooves, Great Southern Bluesfest, Perth’s One Movement have all been called off, while bigger festivals such as Soundwave Revolution have also failed to get off the ground.

It’s not all bad though, with strong line-ups being offered at summer’s bigger festivals this year. An impressive second announcement from Soundwave 2012 last night, as well as positive interest shown in the Golden Plains Sixxx 2012 line up announcement last week.

Australia’s festival culture isn’t quite dead just yet.

Announcement from Soundscape Festival Tasmania Organiser Brendan Self:

Dear Patrons,

The decision to postpone the event was a hard one. We love live music and we love bringing it to Hobart every summer. It feels an eternity ago that the inaugural Soundscape Festival rocked out. Since then you’ve returned year in, year out and we are eternally grateful for your support.

There are many factors and influences that will challenge music festivals in the near future. There has been a drop in patronage across the country and this has impacted many festivals financially. Sadly, due to the financial pressures many festivals have been forced to fold.

So we’ve decided to step back, take a look around and head in to 2012 with a November date and a new direction! This is to ensure that we can keep bringing back the highest quality music festival in to the future.

It has been a wonderful 4 years and we have we got some amazing memories! What about Empire of the Sun’s breathtaking stage show or the rain falling on a sweaty but happy crowd as Basement Jaxx played ‘Raindrops?’ The sun setting behind as Cut Copy played ‘Lights and Music’, the Silent Disco in 2011 or The Living End rocking out on Australia Day 2008?

Let’s not forget Spoon, Roots Manuva, Krafty Kuts, Born Ruffians, Pnau, Grinspoon, Midnight Juggernauts, The Mystery Jets, Jebediah, You Am I, Blue King Brown and the countless other acts.

So the journey continues in to 2012! As for the plans we are working on them right now! As always we are looking to keep things fresh! So that means bringing you acts you want and a quality day out.

In the mean time, we are keeping busy! We are already in the early stages of organising the next event scheduled for November 2012. In addition to this we, as Mainstage Events (the company behind The Soundscape Festival), have been booking bands for The Waratah Hotel and Bandroom. We’ve hosted Little Red, Faker, Illy, Dexter and heaps of emerging local and interstate acts. Cloud Control will also be taking the stage in about a fortnight.

So if we haven’t seen you already at one of our gigs, we will see you soon! Have a great summer and don’t be a stranger. Hit our website and our Facebook. We love to hear from you. On behalf of all the team and artists, past and present; THANK YOU.

Yours Sincerely,

Brendan Self

Festival Organiser

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