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Icelandic pop star Bjork recently pulled out of Renaissance’s Wild In the Country festival at Knebworth, UK, blaming her withdrawal on the ‘volatile nature of the event’. “Bjork is extremely disappointed that this show will now no longer go ahead. They (Wild In The Country – WITC) have been unable to secure any staging, sound and lighting for this festival, making it impossible for the headline artists to perform and are unable to fulfill their contractual obligations to all of the artists contracted to perform at their event,” she said.
Wild In The Country responded with a bemused statement posted on their website revealing they’d only found out about her cancellation through a story on NME.com, before stressing that their Knebworth show would still go ahead as advertised. “We are obviously disappointed, having the utmost respect for Bjork as an artiste, and extend our best wishes to her,” said WITC, “Contrary to what has been suggested, we have diligently provided all production requirements for all of the other acts appearing on this years line-up.”
Two days later, of course, the festival dramatically changed tack, and just days before WITC was due to start. “Stately Events Ltd is extremely disappointed to announce the cancellation of the Wild in the Country festival at Knebworth Park on Saturday 5th July,” WITC declared. “The cancellation is due to lower than expected ticket sales and a key investor withdrawing at the last minute, leaving the event in an unsustainable position. 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,” they added.
Bjork’s latest cancellation emerged several months after she publically fell out with organisers of Serbia’s Exit Festival after she dedicated her song ‘Declare Independence’ to Kosova at a concert in Japan. Exit chief Bojan Boscovic later smoothed things over, extending an open invitation for Bjork to return in the future, though the issue was eclipsed almost immediately when Bjork yelled ‘Tibet, Tibet’ after performing ‘Declare Independence’ at a gig in Shanghai.
Chinese authorities promptly threatened to ban all Tibet supporting artists from visiting China and launched a media blitz against the outspoken singer. “We will further tighten controls on foreign artists performing in China in order to prevent similar cases from happening in the future,” the Ministry of Culture declared. “Some artist (sic) deliberately turned a commercial show into a political performance, which not only broke Chinese law, but also hurt Chinese audiences’ feelings,” they added.
Their position was echoed by local websites including China.org.cn who quoted an Associated Press description of Bjork as being ‘known to have used lyrics to declare political support for various causes.’ “Many western entertainers make use of politics to create their images,” the website added. “The film Team America: World Police (2004) has already satirised this. What Bjork did was simply another ludicrous political show.”
