Soundwave and Big Day Out promoter AJ Maddah has confirmed via Twitter that Perth’s last-ever Big Day Out will be held this weekend. The continuation of the event’s WA leg next year had been in dispute since a last-minute venue change for this year’s event was announced earlier this month.
Last week, Maddah delivered grim news to Western Australian music fans when a Twitter follower asked if they would have to travel to see a Megadeth Sidewave. “Sadly may have to get used to coming over as I reckon there will be zero festivals going to WA in 2015,″ replied Maddah.
The news came following the much-publicised shift of Perth’s Big Day Out 2014 event from its scheduled venue at the Claremont Showgrounds to Arena Joondalup, a move that was welcomed by VenuesWest chairman Graham Partridge, who was optimistic about the change.
However it now appears Big Day Out’s tenure at Arena Joondalup may be short-lived. When asked by a Twitter follower about rumours regarding this year’s Soundwave festival being the last for Perth, Maddah said he wasn’t sure, before adding, “Definitely the last BDO for Perth.”
Maddah has had a contentious history with the local Perth government, repeatedly expressing dissatisfaction with the hostile attitude and bullying tactics of local councils towards live music festivals, an enmity stretching back to Soundwave 2013, when a curfew interfered with the event.
“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 after the Perth switch. “So they keep pushing down sound limits, cutting down show times, making things prohibitively expensive, etc.”
Maddah reiterated his stance last week when Claremont mayor Jock Barker said a potential venue change for Soundwave festival was due to lacklustre ticket sales. “In case of SW it is not ticket sales which I am very happy with. It’s state and Local Govs making it impossible,” tweeted Maddah.
According to Tone Deaf, Barker has been open about his disdain for festival events taking place in Claremont, telling Big Day Out they were “not welcome” in the area and in January saying, “We don’t want the Big Day Out or Soundwave back in Claremont at all…they contribute nothing.”
UPDATE 3:20pm 30/01/14: Big Day Out CEO Adam Zammit has confirmed to Music Feeds that the Perth leg of Big Day Out will not continue. Full details here.
@KayleeRace1 Not sure. Definitely the last BDO for Perth.
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) January 29, 2014
