Gold Coast Festival Lunar Electric Has Gone Into Liquidation

The organisers behind Lunar Electric Festival have gone into liquidation just months before it was set to kick off the already-postponed event date in September on the Gold Coast.

Intensive Events, which trades as Lunar Electric Festival and Inside Out Festival, reportedly entered liquidation on July 5 under an order by the Queensland Supreme Court (as per 7news).

The announcement of the event’s closure isn’t overly surprising, with Lunar Electric - who once hosted names like Pendulum and Darude - facing a slew of criticism over the organisers’ unreliability and lack of info given to punters following the cancellation of this year’s event, which was set to take place in March at Doug Jennings Beach, QLD.

The projected line-up included global superstar Doja Cat, US rappers 6ix9ine, NLE Choppa and Swae Lee, UK artists SwitchOTR and Russ Millions, and hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd and Jamaican singer Popcaan finishing off the bill.

However, just weeks before the festival, the Gold Coast Bulletin revealed that festival organisers hadn't secured the venue advertised on the ticketing partner's website, Oztix, or fully confirmed the line-up.

Ticket sales were subsequently halted, which led to the announcement that Lunar Electric Festival would be postponed until September.

“We have had to make the difficult decision to postpone the March Lunar Electric tour until September 2023,” Lunar Electric said on February 16.

“We want to ensure we deliver the best line-up and experience for you all, and this just couldn’t be achieved at this time. We apologise for the delay in communicating this to you.

“Keep hold of your ticket and we’ll give you 1x complimentary ticket for the new date in September.”

"We want to ensure we deliver the best lineup and experience for you all and this just couldn’t be achieved at this time," they continued. "We apologise for the delay in communicating this to you and hope you’ll be there with us come September for what is going to be one huge Lunar Electric tour!"

Despite this, there has been no further information posted on their Instagram page following the postponement announcement. Their website has also since been removed.

To add to the drama, a spokesperson for a London-based booking agency said Russ Millions - who had been promoted on the 2023 line-up - had never actually been booked in the first place.

“I have no idea why they are using Russ Millions' name as he is not booked for this event,” LiveBase's Patrick Alcide earlier told The Gold Coast Bulletin, adding, “This is fake.”

It also wasn’t the first time the festival had been cancelled. In December 2021, the Newcastle leg of the Lunar Electric Festival was canned due to a health order from NSW Health following concerns about the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

Festival representatives said that they had "done everything we could, and followed all government directives in the lead-up to this event" at the time. The event went ahead in Queensland not long after.

Festival organisers had also faced allegations dating back to last year, with Australian pop star duo The Veronicas claiming that were still awaiting payment of $100,000 owed to them for their performance.

In a since-deleted Instagram post announcing the 2023 tour, the sisters demanded, "Pay the artists you owe from last year!", while fellow artist Hooligan Hefs added, “Stop the cap.”

As of 2022, they were still waiting on their payments.

“We flew back from the US for these shows and flights are expensive now. We still paid all the crew, all the band, all expenses, flights, hotels, everything. And so we’re out of pocket as well as not getting paid for this festival,” they told News Corp.

Purple Sneakers have reached out to Lunar Electric for comment.