This year’s Big Day Out festival will be the last to feature gigs in New Zealand, organisers have announced.
After being first held in Australia back in 1992, the event began visiting New Zealand a year later, but amidst various reports of financial difficulties and complaints surrounding its line-up, Big Day Out has now said 2012 will mark its final trip across the Tasman Sea.
“Social, economic and cultural changes inform what is available to us, what we can afford, what we identify with,” Leonie Hayden told AAP. “They have to charge more to survive, but audiences want to pay less. I suppose that’s why the more boutique festivals are thriving.”
While John Minty, director of the Splore festival, has added: “More specialist festivals seem to be the ones doing quite well; those ones that target families or add a lot of non-music activities to their festivals. The market has been very difficult. They were probably caught with rising prices, trying to deliver a hell of a lot.”
This year’s series of Big Day Out shows, due to kick off on January 20th, will include performances from Kasabian and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
