A new music festival set to tour Australia’s east coast later this month has been slammed by customers after it announced a drastically reduced line-up of artists less than two weeks before its first show.
The reduced line-up comes two weeks after the organisers of Pandemonium Rocks — a new rock festival featuring acts including Blondie, Alice Cooper and Wheatus — announced they would go ahead with “alterations”, and almost three weeks after cancellation rumours began to spread.
These rumours were fuelled by the removal of the festival from Deep Purple, Dead Kennedys, Wolfmother and Cosmic Psychos’s online touring lists.
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The organisers of Pandemonium Rocks have refused to speak to the media since the rumours began to circulate, turning off comments on social media and slamming news reports as “misinformation, rumours and conspiracy”.
Wolfmother and Cosmic Psychos remain in the new line-up, but Deep Purple and Dead Kennedys will no longer appear.
Alice Cooper, Blondie, Psychedelic Furs, Wheatus, Palaye Royale, Wolfmother and Cosmic Psycho will all remain in the altered line-up.
However, Blondie will no longer appear at the Brisbane show.
Placebo and Gang of Four are also no longer participating in the festival.
The Brisbane show will move from Sandstone Point Hotel to Eatons Hill and the Gold Coast show will move from Doug Jennings Park to Broadwater Parklands.
Ticket prices have been reduced to $190 for all shows but Brisbane, which has reduced to $165 plus fees.
Ticket holders can choose between three options as compensation for the changes — a complimentary additional ticket, a partial refund of $70 or a Pandemonium hoodie.
The festival organisers acknowledged “the current state of the Australian economy and the cost-of-living crisis” in their announcement of the changes.
“This cost-of-living crisis has impacted the live music touring industry significantly and forced many other festivals and tours, sadly, to cancel,” they said.
“Pandemonium is not one of those and despite the aforementioned national issues, our festival is moving forward.”
‘Beyond insulting’
Festival-goers were less than impressed with the changes, and the proposed compensation, flooding the comments of the post — which was the first to allow comments in more than two weeks.
“You want to compensate me with an additional ticket to a show I no longer want to go to?” one person asked. “Or a hoodie.”
Others pointed out the hoodies may have been printed ahead of time with the previous line-up.
“A hoodie? Did you really add that as an option? These ‘options’ are beyond insulting,” one customer said.
“The majority of ticket holders just want a refund, you’ve actually made this harder for us by going ahead with half the line-up.
“Instead of just cancelling and giving us our money back, now we have to jump through hoops to get our money back.”
Many customers confirmed they wanted a full refund, as the line-up was no longer what they were promised.
“It’s not a festival, it’s a weird gig,” one festival-goer said.
“If you can’t provide what the consumers paid for, then have the decency to give us a full refund,” another person said.
Others pointed out that venue changes mean some attendees’ planned accommodation is no longer viable and new accommodation is too expensive.
‘Still super psyched’
However, some fans said they were still excited about the line-up.
“I reckon you have done well to make the best of what could have been a very bad situation,” one customer said. “I’m gutted about not seeing Deep Purple but am still super psyched for this line up.”
“Not what I had signed up for but appreciate you are at least trying to keep live music alive,” another person said.
“Great that’s there’s still a festival going ahead,” another customer said. “Though, ‘slightly altered programming’ isn’t very accurate.”
“Well, if it also means longer sets from both Blondie and Alice Cooper, I guess I’m not too disappointed,” another festival-goer said.
“Hopefully the artists aren’t dragged down by all this stuff and put on a great show.”
“At least we get to see some of the main acts, spewing Deep Purple won’t be here, but I’ll get to see Alice and Wolfmother again and Blondie, so it’s cool,” another customer said. “And thanks for the offer of a partial refund.”
Tumultuous landscape
The altered line-up and venue list is the second alteration the festival has faced, after its Sydney venue was changed earlier this year.
The festival was originally scheduled to go ahead at The Domain on Anzac Day, clashing with the annual march.
The venue was then changed to Cathy Freeman Park in the Sydney Olympic Park Precinct.
A spokesperson for Sydney Olympic Park Authority said it is “focused on delivering a diverse range of cultural, community and music experiences at Cathy Freeman Park and continue to work with the Promoter to deliver Pandemonium Festival”.
The changes also come amid a series of festival cancellations, including Splendour in the Grass last week and Groovin The Moo in February.
Pandemonium Rocks has been contacted by 7NEWS.com.au for comment.
