In a shocking turn of events, it’s been announced that the UK edition of the Sonisphere festival has been cancelled. Bands like Faith No More, KISS, Queen (featuring Adam Lambert), Refused, Mastodon, Marilyn Manson, Evanescence, The Darkness, and many others had already been confirmed for the three day festival, which would have taken place July 6-8 at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire.
Despite being one of the larger rock festivals in the UK, this year’s edition was supposedly struggling to sell tickets. The festival’s organizers released the following statement:
“It is with very heavy hearts and much regret that we announce the cancellation of Sonisphere Knebworth 2012. Putting the festival together in what is proving to be a very challenging year was more difficult than we anticipated and we have spent the last few months fighting hard to keep Sonisphere in the calendar. Unfortunately circumstances have dictated that we would be unable to run the festival to a standard that both the artists and that Sonisphere’s audience would rightly expect.
We want to express our deepest regrets to the artists and to thank all the staff, suppliers and contractors who worked so hard with us to try and pull off what has proven to be an impossible task and we know how much they share in our disappointment. We also want to send a huge thanks to the Sonisphere fans who stuck by us and we are so sorry that we can’t fulfil what we set out to do.Ticket holders will automatically receive a full refund direct from their ticket agents.”
Co-Headliners Queen released their own statement about the cancelation:
“We are disappointed to hear of the cancellation of the Sonisphere Festivals as we were very much looking forward to performing with Adam Lambert and particularly as the venue was Knebworth, our last stand with Freddie. We apologise for the disappointment to all those who were looking forward to seeing us. We are working to see if we can redress the situation at some other venue.”
This news still comes as a bit of a shock, since we would have thought that the headliners alone would’ve attracted large crowds. Then again, this wouldn’t be the first time one of the Sonisphere festivals was cancelled at the last minute despite having an impressive lineup. As of now, the remaining Sonisphere festivals outside the UK are still moving forward as planned.
