Blur have pulled out of the rolling Big Day Out festival, citing the ‘constantly shifting goalposts and challenging conditions of the organisers’ as the cause.
The band had been booked as one of the event’s headliners when it takes place throughout Australia in January and February 2014, but it appears constant disagreements behind the scenes have eventually persuaded them to withdraw.
“Devastated to report that Blur won’t be performing at BDO in 2014,” a post on the band’s official Facebook page states. “It’s a shock that it has come to this. Only 8 weeks to go, the band feels that with the constantly shifting goalposts and challenging conditions of the organisers, they can’t let it drag on any longer and want to make this announcement, to be clear to Blur fans that they won’t be there.”
“We’ve done our very best to work with the organisers and considered every option to make it happen, but they’ve let us down and let everyone else down too.”
Arcade Fire and Pearl Jam remain on board as Big Day Out’s other headliners.