The promoters of the UK heavy metal festival Sonisphere have announced that this year’s festival is canceled. The promoters claim they were unable to secure a good enough artist lineup. The Sonisphere organizers left a statement regarding the cancellation. “We’ve been working hard to get a lineup that we felt was good enough, but also on a weekend which would avoid other events that we know rock fans would want to support. Unfortunately, our last irons in the fire have just been extinguished and it’s clear that we won’t be in a position to run the event this year.” They continued, “We hope all rock fans have a great summer with all the festivals and concerts already in the calendar.” The Switzerland leg of the event is not canceling, and Muse will be the headliner.
This is the third time Sonisphere has been canceled since its first music festival in 2009. In 2012, the touring festival had to cancel its UK leg of the tour. The promoters said the they couldn’t deliver an appropriate standard for the event. In 2013, the Sonisphere music festival was canceled after the promoters claimed it was a “very challenging year.” It appears the UK leg of the tour is the weakest. The attendance for the UK division is not as big as the other dates. Some of the European markets manage to pull in 30,000-40,000 fans each year. It seems that regardless of the lack of organization and cancellations, some fans still attend these festival no matter what. In 2011, Sonisphere had the festival stop in Italy for the first time, and more than 40,000 people came during the two-day event. Rockers Iron Maiden and Linkin Park headlined the Italy leg that first year.
In the previous years, the music festival has always been able to secure mainstream acts. Past festival performers include Metallica, Linkin Park, Mötley Crüe, Megadeth, Sum 41, and Limp Bizkit. The first Sonisphere music festival was made up of six one-day shows across Europe. Metal heavyweights Metallica headlined the inaugural event. The following two years, the festival featured eleven venues. Sonisphere plans to return to the UK in 2016. Plans for future festivals include increasing the number of cities, making the festival a worldwide event, and increasing the UK capacity attendees.