Sprung Hip Hop Festival‘s Melbourne leg has been cancelled after Victoria Police withdrew their support for the festival and applications for council permits were subsequently rescinded, leaving organisers with an inadequate timeframe to secure new venues and redesign the festival.
The Melbourne show, originally set down for Saturday, 19th October, was supposed to be the the first time the festival expanded outside of its original home in Brisbane. The first and now only leg of the all-Australian Sprung Hip Hop Festival was held in Brisbane over the weekend, headlined by 360, Drapht and Seth Sentry.
As TheMusic.com.au reports, artists were believed to have been informed of the Melbourne event’s cancellation yesterday, and promoters Clockwork Entertainment subsequently confirmed the news today.
According to a statement from Clockwork, concerns about the financial viability of the festival and doubts about securing a venue and redesigning the festival in such a short timeframe led them to make the call to cancel the Melbourne leg.
Clockwork say that, despite a good track record with Queensland Police during th three Sprung festivals passed, “issues” raised by Victoria Police forced the organisation to pull their support for the event:
“Despite agreements with the Yarra City Council and agreeing to all conditions on provisional liquor license, due to issues raised by the Divisional Planning Unit, North West Metropolitan Region, the Victorian Police have withdrawn their support for the event. This has left the Yarra City Council with little to no choice but to withdraw all support for the applications and therefore rescind the event permits.”
“Emergency negotiations” with other venues proved fruitless, leaving organisers with no time to ensure a well-planned “safe delivery” of the Melbourne festival.
This year has seen the hip hop festival Movement, curated by Nas, cancelled, and the ever-troubled Supafest postponed last minute, with organisers very quiet since announcing dates would be rescheduled. Today’s news comes hot on the heels of the cancellation of yet another hip hop festival, Rap City, which was set to feature Talib Kweli.
