Following the long-suspected and recently confirmed news that Big Day Out will not be returning to Perth, festival promoter AJ Maddah has raised doubts over the future of the Adelaide leg of the show.
As FasterLouder point out, this morning, Maddah responded to a question from a Twitter follower about whether the BDO would return at all next year. “If you’re in Auckland, GC, Sydney or Melbourne, then yes,” Maddah said, making no reference to the Adelaide show.
Maddah has made mention previously of the financial burdens of the Perth and Adelaide legs of the tour. He told one Twitter follower that the BDO Adelaide and Perth shows added an extra $32 onto the general admission tickets for each show.
“Based on this year’s bill, not going to Adelaide and Perth would have meant $153 tickets for GC, Syd & Mel,” he said. That is compared to the current price of $185. “If we look at Perth as an isolated market it loses a lot of money,” he tweeted last week.
Over the weekend, tickets to Sunday’s ailing Big Day Out in Perth were discounted from $185 to an even $100. But Maddah confirmed to Twitter fans that the last-minute sale did little to bolster the flailing crowd numbers. When asked the exact Perth BDO attendance figures Maddah bluntly responded, “19K. $100 tickets made jackshot [sic] difference.”
That figure is higher than 2012’s figures of just 12, 000 attendees, the festival suffering a blow when acts including headliner Kanye West did not appear, but is significantly lower than last year’s figure of 35, 000. Similarly, Adelaide’s numbers have been dwindling, with only an estimated 15, 000 punters making the trek this year, almost 5, 000 less than 2013’s figures.
@LukeGReynolds if you're in Auckland, GC, Sydney or Melbourne, then yes you can!
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) February 2, 2014
@jillianmchugh 19K. $100 tickets made jackshot difference.
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) February 2, 2014
