Organizing a festival as big as Maryland Deathfest is not an easy task, and many issues will come up when dealing with booking the amount of bands they usually list. The latest one to drop off the festival roster is Polish black metal band Batushka.
The festival announced this past Friday 31st that Batushka would not be appearing at the festival, claiming the band’s management double-booked a European tour at the same time as the event and delayed their visa process to come into the country. The post at the festival’s event page reads as follows:
It has recently come to our attention that the European booking agency for Batushka have booked them a tour in Europe that includes dates during MDF weekend. Coincidentally, this is the same agency that was responsible for assisting to arrange their visas, but they did not supply the person who arranges the MDF visas with the information he needed when he asked them for this information in November/December. Had communication been better, the band would have had their visas just like every other band that MDF petitions for, but it seems that this tour took priority over the MDF appearance,
A replacement will be announced shortly.
In response to the festival’s announcement, Batushka’s label Witching Hour Productions stated in a since-deleted post that it was the festival’s fault the band couldn’t get their visas processed and knew about the cancellation since February.
The festival announced Uada as the replacement for Batushka. Take a look at the updated poster below and get your tickets here if you’re still interested in attending:
