Blink-182 Cancels Fyre Festival Headlining Appearance
Author: Dave Brooks
Original article:
"We're not confident that we would have what we need to give you the quality of performances we always give fans."
Blink-182 is pulling out of the much-hyped Fyre Festival in Exumas, Bahamas, telling fans on Twitter that they were worried that festival organizers would not be able to provide the production needed for their performance.
"Regrettably, and after much careful and difficult consideration, we want to let you know that we won't be performing at Fyre Fest in the Bahamas this weekend and next weekend," a tweet from the band's account reads. "We're not confident that we would have what we need to give you the quality of performances we always give fans."
The cancellation is a blow to Fyre Festival organizers and raises serious doubts about whether the lavish two-weekend festival with VIP packages up to $250,000 will be able to open on Friday with headliners from the G.O.O.D. Music crew, including Tyga, Desiigner and Pusha T. Created by rapper Ja Rule and entrepreneur Billy McFarland, Fyre Festival was announced with a buzzy Instagram video that showed models Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin and Emily Ratajkowski sailing on a yacht and swimming off the waters of the tropical festival site, luring in fans spending thousands of dollars on the promise of private beaches, pirate cays and six-figure accommodations.
Concerns that the organizers were in over their heads have been trickling out for weeks -- one agent who has an act playing a top slot at the festival tells Billboard that organizers had to renegotiate the guarantees they were offering some artists after the cost of hosting the ambitious festival began to spiral out of control. Attendees have taken to Reddit and Twitter to complain that the festival site was not ready upon their arrival Thursday (April 27) and that many had not yet seen their rooms. An article earlier this month in the Wall Street Journal said that as of late March, "Some artists still hadn’t been paid what they were owed based on the terms of their contracts," although "the event’s promoters in recent days made progress in catching up with payments, and in some cases have paid acts in full." It also reported that fans who had purchased VIP ticket packages including air travel to and from the festival were "nervous as the festival’s 'concierge' team has been slow to provide them with logistical details."
Billboard reached out to representatives for Fyre Festival and have not yet received a response.
