Big Day Out 2014 Perth Receives Venue Change

The organisers of Big Day Out 2014 have announced a last-minute venue change for their event in Perth, which was slated to take place at the Claremont Showgrounds on Sunday, 2nd February. Big Day Out Perth will now instead take place for the first time at Arena Joondalup.

“After more than 150,000 festival visitors to the venue in the last three years it is not surprising to see one of Australia’s best brands in Australian music make the move north,” VenuesWest Chairman Graham Partridge said in a statement, as reported by inmycommunity blog.

While no specific reason has been officially given, BDO have reportedly experienced problems with the Town of Claremont. Promoter AJ Maddah has been openly critical of the events landscape in Perth, which he says is actively hostile towards youth-centred events and live music festivals.

“This is one of Australia’s premier outdoor music events,” Mr Partridge said. “VenuesWest has worked hard with promoters to ensure the Arena Joondalup is the premier location for outdoor music in Western Australia.” Mr Partridge expressed joy at having two major festivals come to Joondalup.

“Who would have thought five years ago Pearl Jam, Macklemore, Snoop Dog and Deadmau5 would all be playing in Joondalup in one summer along with dozens of other huge acts?” Mr Partridge said. “VenuesWest looks forward to a busy few months over summer and autumn with three of the biggest outdoor music events in Australia.”

Meanwhile, BDO organisers have taken the announcement to their official Facebook page, writing, “We are pleased to be moving to a new home which has the support and encouragement of the venue management as well as the progressive and forward thinking City of Joondalup.”

On Twitter, Maddah said that he hoped to move Soundwave away from the Claremont Showgrounds, saying, “between the stage [sic] Gov, local council and the assholes at RAS they are making it impossible to do shows.” Maddah then reiterated his stance on Perth’s local councils.

“It’s all about pushing events out of Showgrounds so it can be flogged off to their developer mates for apartments & town houses,” tweeted Maddah. “So they keep pushing down sound limits, cutting down show times, making things prohibitively expensive, etc.”

UPDATE 4:40pm 16/01/14: Claremont Mayor Jock Barker claims poor ticket sales are to blame for the move, while BDO CEO Adam Zammit says the council’s “political leverage” forced their hand.

Must Read