Sonisphere Confirm 2013 UK Festival Will Not Take Place
Friday, 21 December 2012
Written by Elliott Batte
The organisers behind metal festival Sonisphere have announced via Facebook and Twitter that the UK edition of the festival will NOT take place in 2013, despite promoter Stuart Galbraith previously revealing that they were "working on a bill" earlier this month.
The 2012 festival was cancelled earlier this year, with organisers claiming that they were "unable to run the festival to a standard that both the artists and Sonisphere’s audience would rightly expect".
The news was a huge blow to metal fans across the country, with Sonisphere winning Best Festival Line Up in the 2011 UK Festival Awards, and Kiss, Queen, and Faith No More set to headline in 2012.
Most were expecting a strong return from Sonsiphere, which has festivals running in countries across the world, with Galbraith describing the 2012 cancellation as a ’hiccup’ in an interview with the BBC earlier this month.
Today, a post on the festival's Facebook page has announced that 2013's event will not be taking place in 2013. The post reads:
"Team Sonisphere is sad to say that it has now been confirmed that Sonisphere UK will take a year off in 2013. The three Sonisphere Festivals to date at Knebworth in 2009/2010/2011 set a very high standard and indeed 2011 was voted the best festival line up by The UK Festival Awards.
“We think it is really important that the event only runs when it has a line up that sets it apart from the competition whilst also carrying a ticket price that allows us to offer real value for money to the music fans. We were hoping to do that in 2013 but unfortunately it wasn't possible to fulfil both aims with the principle problem of there being a lack of available headliners of the calibre of previous festivals at Knebworth. We made offers to over a dozen major artists but for various reasons none of these offers lead to securing a strong bill.
“The good news is that the Sonispheres in Amneville, France and Milan, Italy are already on sale and UK fans who fancy jumping on a budget airline and seeing the mighty Iron Maiden at Sonisphere festivals in sunnier climates can buy tickets via www.sonispherefestivals.com in pounds sterling. Watch out for more Sonisphere European news to be announced early 2013."
There have been a number fans tweeting about the news, some sympathetic - and some simply angry. One wrote:
@sonisphere I'm not going to get on my high horse as I still regard sonisphere the best uk festival but bloody hell you've let us down
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