Photos: Ollie Millington / YouTube

Soundwave’s AJ Maddah Says Download Festival Australia “Needs A Chance To Grow”

The founder of the defunct Soundwave Festival, AJ Maddah, has said that heavy music fans need to give Download Festival Australia “a chance to grow”, after the event’s debut Aussie lineup received criticism from some music-lovers earlier today.

Maddah, who isn’t involved in any way with Download Festival Australia, has responded to followers on Twitter after they praised him for lineups he booked for Soundwave. They also criticised Download Festival’s debut Aussie lineup, which is headlined by Korn, Limp Bizkit and Prophets Of Rage.

Maddah said he’s “definitely very proud” of the lineups he created for Soundwave, but added, “The point is it grew from humble beginnings and people need to give events a chance to grow.

“We did our best, but remember that [Download is] in its 1st year, so expectations need to be tempered accordingly.”

Former Soundwave promoter Chris O’Brien has also shared his thoughts in a statement, saying, “Soundwave started off as a single stage event in Perth and grew organically.

“As the event grew so did people’s expectations and we could never keep up with it in the end. Any festival will be compared to it at its peak unfortunately, which is unfair.”

The 2013 Soundwave lineup is the main roster that Maddah’s followers have pointed to as an example of a stellar heavy music lineup. The festival featured the likes of Metallica, Linkin Park, Blink-182, A Perfect Circle, The Offspring and Paramore that year, and they were just the tip of the iceberg.

Download Festival, meanwhile, is set to make its Australian debut at Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse on Saturday, 24th March, with 29 acts playing across four stages. Peep the full lineup right here.

Organisers also have plans to expand the festival into a national touring event over the coming years, which will depend highly on the success of their debut event.

Music Feeds has reached out to AJ Maddah for further comment. View his and O’Brien’s tweets, below.

Get To Know The 2018 Download Festival Australia Lineup

(In no particular order…)

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