Conor Oberst, We Are Scientists were among lineup
MELBOURNE, Australia -- Australia's Great Escape Festival, due to be arranged Oct. 4 and 5 outside Sydney, has been canceled.
The festival's promoter Mi5 cited "out of the blue low just the ticket sales" in a program line issued Friday. Tickets priced $180 Australian ($163), which included free on-site tenting, went on sale in June.
In 2006 and '07, the event was held over the long Easter holiday weekend in April, with domestic acts Silverchair, Wolfmother, Hilltop Hoods and Missy Higgins topping bills that likewise included less mainstream attractions as Sigur Ros, Martha Wainwright, the Black Keys and Kaki King.
The festival site, the former naval base of Newington Armoury featuring abandoned ammunition factories, officer living quarters and underground bunkers, was seen as a draught point.
In its third year, MI5 felt the oestrus from former Easter events, including the East Coast Blues & Roots Festival (81,000 payers this year) and V Festival (Sydney evidence attended by between 35,000 to 40,000), and shifted to October. The showman declined to reveal ticket sales for the 2008 festival; in previous long time it drew in inordinateness of 15,000.
This year's lineup lacked big-name acts, simply featured familiar names from the U.S., U.K. and Canada including Conor Oberst, Joan as Police Woman, We Are Scientists, the Futureheads, Supergrass, Ladytron and the New Pornographers. Additional club dates in Sydney for these acts will go ahead.
Great Escape is not connected to the U.K.'s Great Escape festival held in Brighton in spring.
