In news set to devastate his legion of Australian fans, Swedish house luminary Eric Prydz has pulled out of his entire Australian tour. All seven dates of his tour across both Australia and New Zealand have been cancelled, with respective promoters extending other headliner sets at short notice to compensate. Sadly, it was Eric’s well documented fear of flying that has ultimately deprived antipodean audiences of seeing him on our shores for the first time.

In a recent interview with ITM, Prydz spoke frankly about the issue, “It’s been a massive problem for me… but I didn’t want to wake up, lying on my bed as an 80-year old man, and be looking back on my life and know that I had the opportunity to travel the world and see all of these amazing places; but I didn’t, because I didn’t want to face my fears. So I decided that I needed to deal with this.”

In a press release issued this evening by his artist management, ITM learnt that despite initially getting on the plane, Eric’s phobia ultimately got the better of him and he was taken off the flight. He then made further unsuccessful attempts with other flights, with the same regrettable outcome. “This is huge disappointment for all concerned, especially Eric and he sincerely apologises to all fans and ticketholders of his scheduled events,” it was said in the statement. “We can only apologise to Future Entertainment who have done everything in their power to make these shows possible and have been nothing less than professional throughout.”

The withdrawal comes as a blow to Fuzzy’s Field Day event, following the previous high profile withdrawals of Roger Sanchez and Trentemoller. However with other headline spots at Shore Thing, Summadayze and Summafieldayze, it’s not just Fuzzy who will be dealing with frustrated crowds over the next few days. In a respectable attempt to salvage a seemingly lost cause, the production crew have confirmed German electro noise chief Boys Noize to sub in at Shore Thing, with Underworld now playing a special extended 2-hour set.

Stay tuned to ITM for updates, below are the list of of shows that have been cancelled by Eric Prydz…

Wed 31st Dec – Shore Thing, Sydney

Thur 1st Jan – Field Day, Sydney

Thur 1st Jan – Summadayze, Melbourne

Sat 3rd Jan – Summafieldayze, Gold Coast

Sun 4th Jan – Summadayze, Perth

Fri 9th Jan – Brown Alley, Melbourne
Sat 10th Jan – Summadayze, Auckland