UPDATE: The third Soundwave 2014 lineup announcement has finally dropped — full details here!
Following the announcement that Big Day Out 2014‘s Perth event has been moved from the Claremont Showgrounds to Arena Joondalup, BDO and Soundwave promoter AJ Maddah expressed hope at having SW 2014 Perth, currently slated for the Showgrounds, follow BDO in changing venues.
No official reason was given for Big Day Out’s last-minute change, but organisers previously tussled with members of the Claremont Council when some, like Claremont CEO Stephen Goode, admitted they were looking to block the festival’s application to extend their curfew to 11:00pm.
Taking to Twitter, Maddah said that he hoped to move his flagship event away from the troublesome venue, saying, “between the stage [sic] Gov, local council and the assholes at RAS they are making it impossible to do shows.” Maddah then echoed previous statements 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 a vitriolic Maddah. “So they keep pushing down sound limits, cutting down show times, making things prohibitively expensive, etc.”
When asked if the scheduling of Future Music‘s Perth event for Arena Joondalup would prevent Soundwave from switching, Maddah was optimistic, saying it would “not necessarily” prevent a move, adding, “We’re working with Future to see if we can make venue share work.”
[UPDATE 10:40pm: As pointed out by a Music Feeds reader, Good Life‘s Perth event takes place at Arena Joondalup on the same day as Soundwave, so a change to that venue seems unlikely.]
Maddah has long been openly critical about the Perth government’s hostile attitude towards live music and festivals. During Soundwave 2013, all of the event’s stages save for one where headliners Metallica were playing, were closed down early, likely as a result of a curfew.
When asked about the exclusion of Perth from the return of Vans Warped Tour Australia last year, Maddah was emphatic, saying, “State laws have made it just about impossible to do all-ages shows, and what’s that done exactly is that a whole couple of generations of kids have missed out on going to shows when they’re young [and] therefore have grown up being into shit music, quite frankly.”
In March 2012, Tone Deaf reported comments made by Claremont Mayor Jock Barker, expressing contempt for music festivals, telling Big Day Out they were “not welcome” in the area and saying, “We don’t want the Big Day Out or Soundwave back in Claremont at all…they contribute nothing.”
UPDATE: The third Soundwave 2014 lineup announcement has finally dropped — full details here!
@pippa_reed I certainly hope so. between the stage Gov, local council and the assholes at RAS they are making it impossible to do shows
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) January 15, 2014
@pippa_reed It's all about pushing events out of Showgrounds so it can be flogged off to their developer mates for apartments & town houses
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) January 15, 2014
@pippa_reed So they keep pushing down sound limits, cutting down show times, making things prohibitively expensive, etc.
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) January 15, 2014
@Plugga73 @pippa_reed Not necessarily. We're working with Future to see if we can make venue share work.
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) January 15, 2014
@Plugga73 @pippa_reed Not necessarily. We're working with Future to see if we can make venue share work.
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) January 15, 2014
