Jan 07, 2016
Australian music festival Southbound was supposed to take place in Brusselton, WA this weekend, but has now been cancelled due to massive bushfires ripping through the western coast of the country.
The festival had initially announced alternate travel routes to avoid fires, but has now been forced to cancel the entire event due to the fire's increasing severity. An official statement outlines that the festival are cooperating with the West Australian Police, Main Roads Department and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services. "We cannot compromise patron safety and proceed knowing people’s lives are at risk getting to the event," it states.
Festival director David Chitty stated, “Everyone on site is absolutely devastated as we were working so hard to bring the best Southbound yet. Please understand at this time we will be extremely busy dealing with the cancellation and our thoughts are with those in danger due to the nearby fire.”
Patrons will be receiving information about ticket refunds on Wednesday, Janaury 13.
Southbound is the West Australian sister festival to the east coast's Falls Festival. Falls takes place in three locations across the east coast of Australia around New Years, and this year, its Lorne, VIC installation was forced to move location at the last minute, also due to serious bushfires in the area. A fundraising campaign at the event raised more than $100,000 to help those affected the fires.
The Southbound lineup featured Foals, Disclosure, Bloc Party, Kurt Vile, Mac DeMarco, Courtney Barnett, The Maccabees, Young Fathers, Toro Y Moi, Django Django, Gary Clark Jr, Hiatus Kaiyote and more.