Big Day Out Promises To Pay Everyone Despite Tough Year

The owners of the Big Day Out festival have vowed that all the vendors involved with this year's event would be paid despite enduring a tough year for ticket sales.

Arguably Australia's most internationally recognisable music festival, Big Day Out has endured a year of upheaval with AJ Maddah becoming a co-owner of the event with American giants C3 Presents.

Recently the event came under attack by Fairfax media, who said that the event's losses – unconfirmed estimates pushed the figure over $10 million – would leave contractors short-changed.

A statement sent to theMusic.com.au from C3 has rubbished those accusations.

“C3 Presents always pays the hardworking vendors who help us to create music festivals around the globe,” it read. “A Sydney newspaper reported that vendors would not be paid and that is simply not the case.”

This year's festival finished in Perth over the weekend with serious question marks over whether the festival will return to the West in the future. While festival patronage was not as strong as organisers would have hoped – a planned second Sydney show was pulled as early as September – the festival experiences themselves have been well received.

“Promoting concerts around the globe is a challenging adventure and sometimes the ticket sales do not perform as expected,” said C3. “This is part of the business and something we are prepared to deal with for each unique festival we produce. We thank all who attended Big Day Out this year and were able to experience all the amazing music at the festival.”

C3 Presents also promote Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits in the United States.