Perth Band ‘Heartbroken’ As Visa Issues Slash Their ‘Dream’

Due to visa complications, Perth metalcore outfit Patient Sixty-Seven can no longer take their music to the US and play at the Blue Ridge Rock Festival.

Taking to social media over the weekend, the local four-piece revealed that they can’t make it to “America’s largest rock and camping festival” and perform on a line-up that features headliners Slipknot, Pantera, Five Finger Death Punch and Shinedown.

Australian bands with more experience touring in the US, including Parkway Drive, The Amity Affliction and Northlane, are booked to perform at Blue Ridge from 7-10 September 2023.

“Despite exhausting every avenue at our disposal to make our dream a reality, we don’t quite meet the strict USA visa working requirements to be able to make it happen in 2023,” the band wrote in a candid, emotional statement on Facebook.

“Being a smaller independent band without the extensive touring or lack of festival history here or overseas - we are devastated to not get approval.

“We truly tried everything possible, and without severely risking or jeopardising the future of our band - there was nothing more we were able to do.

“I sincerely apologise to everyone who was excited to see us, we are as saddened and disappointed as you are.”

Telling fans that they were willing to travel and spend as much money as necessary, “put everything on the line and our lives on hold at home for this opportunity,” the unfortunate reality is that this outcome is entirely outside of the band’s control.

While it’s devastating that the band will no longer be appearing at the Virginia-based festival, the time and money they’ve managed to recoup from the cancellation (not all of it) has allowed Patient Sixty-Seven to work on their new album.

This year, Patient Sixty-Seven have released the standalone singles, Lake Valley and Hibbertia, which followed their July 2022 debut album, Wishful Thinking. The record debuted atop the Australian iTunes Metal Chart and made a dent on the ARIA and Billboard charts.

The band’s statement continued, “We will keep doing everything we can to make our dreams a reality, with you guys here with us.

“It hasn’t been an easy month behind the scenes for us, and for me personally - I’ve spent countless days and nights stressing on what we can do, and I’ve been very sad once learning it’s now out of our hands. It does hit hard.

“I hate letting people down. And I’m sorry once more we couldn’t make it happen, this was all possible because of you.

“But I know we’ll never give up.

“We love doing this too much, and it’s one setback on the way to other exciting things to come. That I can promise, and exciting things can continue to happen in the future.”

You can support Patient Sixty-Seven by listening to their music and buying merchandise from their website.