Statement regarding MelodicRock Fest Australia

It is with regret that FM have to announce that we will not be appearing at MelodicRock Fest Australia, or any of the associated side shows.

This is not a decision that we have taken lightly. Despite all the cancellations, and venue issues, we always held on to the fact that the Promoters had fulfilled most of their contractual obligations towards FM, so we felt confident that we would see everyone in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

However, once the cancellations began, and then the original venue for the festival was cancelled, we felt that we required additional assurances on things like internal travel, accommodation, new line-ups, new venue information, and more.

None of this was forthcoming at any stage, the extremely limited contact we had with the promoters amounted to “It’s all in hand”, "Yes it’s all confirmed.”, etc. Despite requests for more than just verbal assurance, none of this has been forthcoming.

We have left it as late as we possibly can, indeed, right up to the point of check-in for our flight to Melbourne, having already made the first part of the journey.

Unfortunately, we just can’t take the risk, especially with the the lack of communication, and the vagueness of their communication we have received. The cancellation of our sideshows in Sydney and Brisbane were not notified to us by the promoters, we found out from fans. When the promoters finally did comment to us, the response on both occasions was “the venue did it, it wasn’t our decision”.

So, we apologise to everyone who was looking forward to seeing FM play in Australia for the first time. We are as disappointed as you are.

What we do promise; if we can agree a deal with a more reputable promoter to bring FM to Australia, then we WILL be there. And hopefully it will not be too long.



Thanks,
Merv, Steve, Jim, Pete, Jem