World Famous Music Fest In Crisis As Latest Event Called Off

20 April 2016 | 12:23 pm | Staff Writer

Is this the end?

The future of world famous All Tomorrow's Parties (ATP) festival looks to be in serious jeopardy following a number of ugly incidents which have occurred in recent days, headlined by the cancellation of its second weekend event and the departure of its curators, US outfit Drive Like Jehu, who accused the festival of being "out of funds".

Last month, organisers of the London-founded event were forced to clear up speculation that ATP 2.0 would not be going ahead and after relocating from Pontins Prestatyn to the Victoria Warehouse, they announced on Monday that the second event, scheduled for this weekend, will not be going ahead "due to its lack of financial viability".

"We would also like to extend our gratitude to the curators and artists for their involvement, and we are so sorry that we will not be able to stage this event," the Facebook statement reads. 

However, Drive Like Jehu released their own statement in which they blasted festival founder Barry Hogan, accompanied by a picture of a toilet roll with "ATP" written across the paper. 

Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter

"A search party was sent to Monkey Island to scan the wreckage for survivors and only found Barry Hogan/ATP collecting bits of luggage and body parts for his next show 'ATP 3.0 The 90’s Deconstructed'", the post reads. 

"It’s a uniquely cruel hoax to appeal to Drive Like Jehu’s ego and ask us to create a program based on personally inviting the bands and musicians that have inspired us and changed the way we hear music and then subject them and their supporters to this.

"48 hours ago word started to trickle in that Barry hadn’t honored his agreement with many of the bands. These bands were not canceling, but rather did not have the promised means to attend. It was only then revealed that ATP was unable to honor the agreement with the ticket holders that purchased accommodation. ATP is out of funds. ATP offered to postpone the event until November as a solution. No thanks.

"To all the bands and ticket holders, i couldn’t feel more terrible that the fest isn’t happening. We were willing to come over under any circumstance even if it meant we would not get paid, just to see this show happen. I wish i could give you more answers at this point and advice what to do next."

Unfortunately, reports have suggested that last weekend's first ATP event for 2016 wasn't so crash-hot either. 

According to Independent, headliner John Cale cancelled his appearance and the other 2016 curator, comedian and writer Stewart Lee, poked fun at the festival during a stand up set in which he reportedly said, "as if there’s going to be another one".

Read the full statements from ATP and Drive Like Jehu below.

The ATP festival came to Australia for the very first time in 2009 and was curated by iconic Australian outfit, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds who performed alongside acts such as The Saints, Spiritualized, Fuck Buttons, Robert Forster and The Necks. 

The festival returned in 2013 for the I'll Be Your Mirror event which was curated by ATP organisers and Melbourne band, The Drones.

It's not the first time the festival has claimed to face financial issues. In 2013, ATP's Jabberwocky Festival was called off just three days out due to money problems.