Australian metal promoters Soundworks Touring have warned punters in Adelaide and Perth that if ticket sales don’t improve they will be removing both cities from their touring schedule.
The promoters, who have previously handled Australian tours from The Black Dahlia Murder, Behemoth, Voyager and Cannibal Corpse, told Perth and Adelaide punters, via a since-deleted Facebook post, that they are officially “on notice”.
“Perth and Adelaide..listen up…you are officially on notice. If the ticket sales do not hit a respectable point we will be removing BOTH cities from all future touring plans,” read the message from director Brad Wesson. With Soundwave‘s absence from Perth in 2015, the notice comes as the economic viability of tours outside Australia’s east coast has become a hot-button topic in the industry.
“Adelaide, you asked for shows to come back but you are not returning the love…155 sales as of today…if it does not hit 400 then there is not point putting future shows of this size in your town…as much as we do love your beer and strip clubs,” continues the Soundworks post.
“Perth…473 for Carcass and Cannibal is looking the same. If you don’t get up over 500 then it’s back to the days of flying east to catch death metal shows for you. Take note guys, the days of us losing money in Perth are over unless you prove a point at Cannibal.”
Earlier this year, Soundwave festival boss AJ Maddah confirmed that the 2014 edition of Soundwave would be Western Australia’s last. Maddah had previously remarked that due to poor ticket sales and high costs, keeping the Perth leg of the Soundwave festival would have meant losing the festival altogether.
“[One] more year like this one in Perth and there would be no [Soundwave] anywhere. Sorry. Perth is too expensive & not enough ticket sales,” he wrote via Twitter. Maddah has also expressed concern about the festival’s viability in Adelaide also due to disappointing ticket sales, but has since confirmed that Soundwave will tour Adelaide in 2015.
Michael Crafter, frontman of Australian hardcore outfit Confession, lashed out at Perth Soundwave fans earlier this month, who took to social media to vent their frustrations that the Soundwave 2015 festival won’t be stopping in Western Australia. His comments that they should “get on a plane” met the approval of The Amity Affliction‘s Ahren Stringer who replied that “they just don’t understand how insanely expensive it is to fly a tour of that magnitude further than a different country”.
