Less than two weeks from show time, boutique hip hop mini festival Rap City has announced its cancellation. This would have been the third year for the event but, despite the best attempts by organisers for the event to grow organically, Rap City 2013 has closed its doors.
The event was scheduled to kick off during the Queen’s Birthday long weekend during October and has advertised US rap identity Talib Kweli as the headliner. The mini festival would have done the full round with stop-offs locked in for Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Sydney but now, FasterLouder reports, Rap City will not be going ahead.
Back in April, promoter Trent Roden spoke to FL, explaining his optimism regarding the event:
“The idea is a boutique concept event with merchandise, visuals and quality hip-hop acts so if we can maintain that focus we will grow it when and where we can. We are happy to continue the brand and excited to see where it can lead in the future for us.”
The event showed serious potential, with the maiden lineup back in 2010 featuring acts such as DJ Premier, Beatnuts and Masta Ace. The festival didn’t return in 2011 but was resurrected the next year with a worthy lineup featuring Ghostface Killah, DOOM and Killah Priest.
Rap City follows on from, well, just about every other hip hop festival featuring international artists that attempts to take place Down Under. Supafest, Heatwave, Movement – you name it, they’ve been scrapped.
Music Feeds brought up the situation during our interview with The Game, who only just managed to make it down to Australia himself after a few last-minute schedule shuffles. You can hear his thoughts on the situation below.
UPDATE: Official word has now come through from organisers explaining that the festival was cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances and the event will return with new dates for each artist who are now locked in for solo headlining tours.
Watch: The Game talks Australian hip hop tours
http://youtu.be/OK6ExKyBdaw
(Via FL)
