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Neil Young Has Pulled Out Of Bluesfest 2017

Hot on the heels of cancelling his promised Australian tour before dates had even been announced, Neil Young has now pulled the plug on his headlining performance at Bluesfest 2017.

The legendary singer has yet to make a statement or provide a reason for either cancellation, which has no doubt left fans feeling peak levels of blues. But festival organisers say the news “comes as a great disappointment to Bluesfest”.

In a statement posted to Instagram (below), Bluesfest Festival Director Peter Noble says:

“Although I have been aware of this as a possibility for a couple of weeks now, I have been appealing to Neil’s management for him to play the confirmed concert. Unfortunately, this is now not going to happen. Whilst details for the cancellation remain sketchy, from what I can gather Neil has decided to take 2017 off from touring.

“At the moment, there isn’t an official statement from Neil’s management regarding the cancellation. I have no reason to believe this is due to any illness, I have been advised he is tired from recent touring, and I surmise wants to have some down time.”

In a statement, the Bluesfest team say they’re hard at work scouting a replacement to fill Young’s cowboy boots on the Friday night headliner slot, but in the meantime, heartbroken fans who were heading to the Byron Bay bash just to see Young will be offered refunds on their tickets.

Still, Bluesfest is urging “Friday Single Day Bluesfest patrons to hold on to their Tickets until the new artist announcement is released soon”.

“Once the new artist announcement for Friday has been made, Single Day Friday Ticket refunds will still be available for 7 days after that,” organisers explain.

Hmmm. Must have something exciting in the works, then.

“There will be a new artist announcement coming very soon!” they promise.

Catch the full updated lineup for Bluesfest 2017, below.

2017 Bluesfest Lineup

Sir Rosevelt

Joining…

Madness

Miles Electric Band

Patti Smith And Her Band Acoustic Set

Billy Bragg And Joe Henry

Slightly Stoopid

Rhiannon Giddens

Tony Joe White

Max Jury

The Record Company

The Mountain Goats

The California Honeydrops

Trevor Hall

Joining…

Barry Gibb

Joining…

Neil Young & Promise Of The Real

Joining…

Santana

The Doobie Brothers

Joining…

Mary J. Blige

Corinne Bailey Rae

Michael Kiwanuka

Nahko And Medicine For The People

Gallant

The Suffers

Joining…

Zac Brown Band

Patti Smith And Her Band Perform Horses

The Lumineers

Buddy Guy (Exclusive)

Bonnie Raitt

Mavis Staples (Exclusive)

Billy Bragg

Jethro Tull

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

Gregory Porter

Snarky Puppy

St. Paul & The Broken Bones

Beth Hart (Exclusive)

Laura Mvula

Roy Ayers

Booker T Presents The Stax Records Revue

Andrew Bird

Rickie Lee Jones

Joan Osborne

Turin Brakes

The Strumbellas

Jake Shimabukuro

Dumpstaphunk

Nikki Hill

Irish Mythen

+ More to be announced

Bluesfest 2017

Tickets on sale now

Thursday, 13th – Monday, 17th April

Byron Bay, NSW

Tickets: Bluesfest

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