After reports the company owing a lot of money, the future of the Australian rock music festival looks rather murky.
Soundwave is a travelling festival in Australia that brings together rock, punk and metal acts from within the country, and around the world. The 2016 edition was scheduled for January 23-26. Entertainment industry technical publication CX recently reported that the festival owes debts of nearly $26 million. The festival will definitely not be taking place in 2017, according to founder AJ Maddah, but the fate of the 2016 event is yet to be officially announced. Soundwave was a profitable business in 2013, but several bad investment later, it’s entered into voluntary insolvency.
While Maddah claims he’s “doing his darnest to make sure the shows go ahead”, there are rumours of the 2016 edition being cancelled. Eric Melvin, of Australian punk legends NOFX – one of the acts slated for the festival, claims that Soundwave 2016 has been cancelled. Maddah has commented on this statement, saying that’s it’s “a bit premature” and that the official announcement on the fate of the event will happen soon enough. Stay tuned for more updates!