Dead Kennedys Pull Out Of Pandemonium Rocks Festival

Dead Kennedys will no longer perform at Pandemonium Rocks festival this month.

The rockers made the announcement on Instagram today, sharing the festival’s recent news post about reducing to a one-stage event. They wrote in the caption:

We regret to inform everyone that Dead Kennedys will not be performing at the Pandemonium Festival shows in Australia later this month as the shows have been reduced to one stage and Dead Kennedys will not be included in the lineup.

Dead Kennedys is eager to tour Australia when schedules next permit.

The Music has reached out to festival organisers for comment.

The band’s announcement arrived a week after Pandemonium Rocks organisers revealed they’d detail a “revised” line-up sometime after Easter.

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A post shared by Dead Kennedys (@dead__kennedys)

At the time of publication, here’s what we know about the festival:

Pandemonium Rocks will move to a “one-stage event” rather than the initial announcement of a two-stage festival.

When the organisers shared that news last week, they wrote that the holdup in further news is due to “waiting on responses from festival stakeholders across multiple time zones, which has a run-on effect on Ticketing, Promotion, Artwork, etc. We appreciate this may not be the update you were hoping for, but in order to avoid further confusion, we will share confirmed details as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.”

Before the news of possible “alterations” and changes to the set-up were announced, Pandemonium Rocks blasted reports that the festival was cancelled after Nine News Gold Coast claimed the event was off.

At the time of publication, the inaugural event will be held at Melbourne’s Caribbean Gardens on 20 April, Sydney’s Cathy Freeman Park in the Olympic Park Precinct on 25 April, the Gold Coast’s Doug Jennings Park on 27 April, and Bribie Island’s Sandstone Point Hotel on 28 April.

While Dead Kennedys have announced their departure, Alice Cooper, Blondie, Placebo, Deep Purple, Wheatus, The Psychedelic Furs, Gang Of Four, Palaye Royale, Petch, Wolfmother, Gyroscope and Cosmic Psychos are still on board.

However, some punters are concerned about the remainder of the line-up, as the Pandemonium tour dates are no longer on the Placebo, Deep Purple and Wolfmother websites.

In January, the festival faced controversy in New South Wales for its initial ANZAC Day event at The Domain, later moving venues to Cathy Freeman Park.

After explaining the venue change, Apex Entertainment CEO Andrew McManus commented, “We’ve put together a brilliant line-up of iconic rock’n’roll acts that is set to deliver an amazing day of music, no matter what the location.”

This is a developing story.