Bad Friday Defends Sticky Fingers' Surprise Set: 'They Will Never Be Everyone's Cup Of Tea'

Organisers of Sydney's Bad Friday festival have defended the decision for the returning Sticky Fingers to headline this past weekend's event, after many spoke out against the surprise set. 

The performance at the festival last Friday was the band's first since 2016 when they announced an "indefinite hiatus".

"In the 10 years we have known the lads, we have watched their incredible journey as a band; relentlessly touring the country for years building a fan base one small gig at a time, to playing in front of 20k people at Splendour In The Grass," the statement reads.

"We've also watched their journey as individuals, witnessing their successes, their failures and their challenges as they have ours. In that time we lost a pub we spent 13 years fighting for, went bankrupt and experienced some pretty dark spaces and have now started the slow road back to recovery.

"Throughout those times as a group they have always shown us incredible friendship, support and above all loyalty. We've made plenty of dumb decisions; we're rough around the edges and said plenty of stupid things in our past as I'm sure the STIFI boys will admit they have.

"They will never be everyone's cup of tea, but despite the endless stream of utter lies that gets peddled out about them, we know the truth and we will never forget the loyalty they have shown us. Leading up to this year’s event we had plenty of clowns asking for a statement or to reply to messages being posted on social media when it was becoming clearer who the headline act was going to be, but our statement was simply having STIFI headline BAD FRIDAY."

Read the full statement below.