Australian Music Festivals can never seem to catch a break. It's been a rough year for them with cancellations abound and looks like the ill fated Pandemonium Rocks festival may be getting the chop next. The seemingly doomed festival promised major international acts like Placebo, Blondie, Alice Cooper and Deep Purple headlining, bringing back some of these bands for the first time to the country in years, while having a fine share of other local and international rock & punk artists. I myself was really looking forward to the music festival, and was one of the first to buy tickets to the Sydney concert, as I was really wanting to see Deep Purple live again. However, because someone turned the stupid button on in 2024, things got political when fun-ruiners NSW Premier Chris Minns and RSL President Mike Bainbridge, discussed the concert on public radio back in January (several weeks after the tickets were on sale) and suddenly, hosting a rock concert on Anzac Day was a problem, despite there being no outcry before hand.
Despite most people who take part in the ANZAC Day ceremonies go to the pub after midday and get pissed & play Two-Up all day, while the local sports like Football and Horse Racing are on at the same time, the politicians complained about the rock festival being on at the same day. Waste of timer Chris Minns suddenly thought the idea was bad and pulled the plug on it at it's original location, which would have been held in The Domain in Sydney (right near ANZAC Day ceremonies), even though the festival wasn't meant to start until after midday. Then we'd get the word that the new venue for Sydney would be at Cathy Freeman Park. The other Australian festival dates were unaffected by any change. Why is it always Sydney?
It's come to my attention that something happened yesterday. I don't know what, but people noticed bands like Deep Purple, Wolfmother and Cosmic Psychos removed their Australian tour dates for this year, which featured all Pandemonium Festival appearances and Side Shows. Fans were worried and thought the event was cancelled - but the Facebook page is determined that the festival is still going ahead despite some of the main acts supposedly cancelling. There have also been no official statements from any bands regarding any cancellations of Australian Pandemonium festivals at this stage, nor if they plan to make it up to Australian fans later on in the year for missing out. Bands like Deep Purple rarely come to Australia and i've only seen them here a few times. I was really hoping that they would come back and tour here with their new guitarist Simon McBride and maybe do a new song or two.
I like many are disappointed in this news. I don't think it'd be the same if another artist replaces bands like Deep Purple on the bill. There has been no explanation so far from any promoter or acts.
People who already bought tickets to Pandemonium 2024 were understandably annoyed when the organizers started doing "Two for One" ticket deals on special holidays like Valentines Day & St Patricks Day, causing red flags amongst attendees.
If Pandemonium Rocks does get cancelled looks like it will join a list of several other music festivals that were already cancelled in Australia this year like Groove On The Moo and Pitch Festival in Victoria. Someone up there doesn't want us to have any fun.
At the moment there is no official confirmation that the festival is cancelled, or why some artists removed their appearance dates. I will let you know if we have any updates in the coming weeks.
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