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The seriously star-studded Wild In The Country festival, run by dance music super-brand Renaissance and scheduled to hit the Knebworth Estate near London tomorrow, has been canned with little warning. Organisers have cited poor ticket sales and the withdrawal of a principal sponsor as the deciding factors.
The trouble began brewing for Wild In The Country when headliner Bjork pulled out, calling the festival “volatile”. Rumours of other artist cancellations began trickling down on message-boards, before Renaissance called off the festival only yesterday. The WITC website offers this explanation: “Unfortunately, Wild in the Country has become the latest in a series of festivals that have suffered from a unique and well-documented set of market forces this summer.”
While “every effort [will be made] to ensure that ticket purchases will be refunded,” there are some seriously disgruntled punters on the festival forum. And we can imagine why, when the line-up once looked this:
Live:
Björk
Soulwax
Pendulum
Foals
Booka Shade
Battles
Late of the Pier
Hercules & Love Affair
The Presets
Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobious Pip
The Count and Sinden
The Cuban Brothers
Metronomy
Killa Kela
The Field
XX Teens
Audion
Heartthrob
Slagsmalsklubben
DJs:
Sasha
Danny Tenaglia
Richie Hawtin
2 Many DJs
Faithless (DJ set)
Carl Craig
M.A.N.D.Y.
Mylo (DJ set)
James Zabiela
Annie Mac (Radio 1)
Dave Seaman
Marco Carola
Magda
Âme
Plump DJs
Switch
Norman Jay
Dixon
Audiofly
Serge Santiago
Nightmoves
Duke Dumont
Inxec
Matt Tolfrey
Marcus James
Acim
funkichiken says...
ouch! thats an awesome lineup!
tomxon says...
holy fuk... at that line up... id be spewing!
Euphoria85 says...
umm thats one great bloddy lineup... wtf is wrong with people... look at the dj's - sasha, danny t, switch, faithless, 2manydjs, m.a.n.d.y, james zabiela, duke dumont.... this beats any line up that sydney's had in festivals recently... :)
westerndog says...
The Brits are quite clearly spoilt for choice if a lineup like that can't sell tickets....
kone says...
bring it here i'll freaking go!
JackT says...
yeah, I think the desire to create an absolutely incredible line-up wasn't matched by the money at hand. Oh well, I went last year. Was great!
Flnz says...
Epic lineup *drools*....damn english, stop hogging all the good music!
scottyk82 says...
NOT FAIR ENGLAND SUCKS AS A NATION can't even make euro OZ RULES AND WE KEEP GETTING BOMBARDED WITH MEDIOCRE SHIT FROM FUZZY AND FUTURE!!!!
Marles says...
Yeah I went last year too! Paul woolford followed by Sasha
JackT says...
luciano followed by mathew jonson followed by francois k followed by damian lazarus followed by villalobos. yeah, it wasn't bad :)
J-radical says...
you can see that bunch at any other festi over summer, thats probably why it was axed. zero points for originality
boxcar_saviour says...
People simply don't have that kinda spare cash over here at the moment! Plus O2, despite having a cheesiet line-up (Underworld, Fatboy Slim etc) is on the same day, it's in London, and it's cheaper. Glasto was also on just last weekend! The Gatecrasher SSS fiasco has probably scared quite a few punters off dance festivals as well.
golanda76 says...
ummm..... i live in london..... and you'll be hard pressed finding any underground outdoor FESTIVAL with this line-up so I think the "zero points for originality" is a ridiculous comment. A whole Minus tent! that is unheard of here - that is more of a Sonar or Berlin type festival. the likes of sasha and digweed and carl cox and zabiella and lawler and all the regular big names dominate every friggin festival here. so when these big names are put together with more underground artists and labels - Minus and Innervisions djs and Carl Craig and Audion and Marco Carola and MANDY/Booka Shade - it is a very different and much larger beast. i personally think JackT hit the nail on the head. the festival tried to get too big too fast. it tried to be everything at once (live bands and djs, undergound and ...less underground) and failed. why did they get bjork!!! either they stick to smaller events (last yr again would have done me fine) and build it up or they be prepared to make a loss for a few years to build the brand - like Virgin Festival are doing in Sydney... I'm so so gutted. 2 days before and we were so looking forward to it:(
scottyk82 says...
v fest run at a loss? hmmm (source of statement please)
shr3dder says...
had a ticket to this, was seriously gutted yesterday when i found out :(
tania veronese says...
this is ridiculous!! i actually went to this last year and it was bloody awsome! it is a small festival (10 000 people) which made it more intimate and much better than the large ones. UNDERWORLD headlined last year and they went off!! i do honestly think they are spoilt for choice over there. there are just so many festivals going on every weekend all over the uk and europe and they all have awsome lineups!
haydn81 says...
what a load of bollox ! cool acts tho...shame..:-(
golanda76 says...
ScottyK82, Read the article below....it's aptly titled "Branson admits loss on V festival" http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/branson-admits-loss- on-sydney-music-event/2008/03/29/1206207501431.html ...and to top it all off, it didn't even bloody rain!