The 2016 edition of Australia's Soundwave Festival has been canceled a month before it was scheduled to get underway due to "poor ticket sales." The three-day, three-city event was scheduled to take place in Brisbane on January 23rd, Sydney a day later and Melbourne on January 26th. The festival was cancelled amid debts of up to $25 million, leaving suppliers and ticket holders for January's planned three-city event in limbo.

In a series of Twitter posts, Soundwave promoter AJ Maddah said: "I am devastated to have to announce the cancellation of Soundwave 2016 due to poor ticket sales. I am very sorry. I tried my best."

He went on to say: "Thank you to all the fans, bands and people who supported the event for the last 12 years. I wish we could have ended it on a better note."

Maddah added: "Great triumph for the Internet hate squad and the trolls. Congratulations, guys. Only thing is, you are now fast running out of targets."

Tickets to Soundwave 2016 cost more than $150.

In early October 2015, a creditors' meeting heard Soundwave owed more than $11 million to some of the biggest acts in the world, including Seattle grunge pioneers Soundgarden ($2.1 million), metal act Slipknot ($1.6 million), and Billy Corgan's group Smashing Pumpkins ($1.2 million).

Burton Bell, frontman of Californian metal band Fear Factory, told Fairfax Media in October he became aware of Maddah's financial issues in February while playing the Adelaide leg of the 2015 festival. "AJ owes my band a lot of money," he said. "We fear we will never see that money. My family has suffered financial hardship since the Soundwave tour."

Source:

smh.com.au