Organisers behind Splendour In The Grass offshoot Spin Off Festival have taken to Facebook to announce that the event will not be taking place this year.
According to the statement, “scheduling conflicts and international demands on artists” led to an unviable 2014 for the Adelaide festival. Speaking to Rip It Up, festival organiser Craig Lock of 5/4 Entertainment elaborated on the challenges faced by Spin Off Festival this year.
“We tried to book a lot of Splendour’s line-up, but they just weren’t able to play,” he said. “The main reason for that is there are other international festivals in the week before and the week after [Splendour] which have been growing in size over the years. [Artists] are getting really big offers to play these events – and they’re big events – and our offers for an Adelaide event, which is much smaller, are not in the same ball park. So it’s impossible for us to compete.”
“Making [artists] hang around in Australia for an extra week at that time of year is a big ask,” he added. “It’s not really the peak season in Australia, whereas it is in other locations in the world.”
Organisers are optimistic of the event’s future, saying they will attempt to run Spin Off again in 2015, and already looking to ways to avoid a similar situation in the future. One possible solution involves scheduling the event to take place the same week as Splendour, meaning less hang-time for the artists. Lock reassured South Australians that this isn’t the end.
“It’s not that this event is an unsuccessful event, and it’s not that we don’t want to do it – we do want to do it – it’s just been very difficult to physically make it happen this year,” he said.
Adelaide does have something to get excited about, though, as Lock is currently in talks with one international act for a potential South Oz sideshow.
“Hello Spin Off fans,
We have had a lot of you asking if we are going to be running Spin Off again this year.
It’s with a heavy heart that we must now announce that due to scheduling conflicts and international demands on artists, Spin Off Festival will not be taking place in 2014.
We would like to thank everyone that came out to support us in the last two years, especially those who stood by our side and sang and danced throughout every act. We will attempt to run Spin Off Festival again in 2015.”
