Adelaide loses Soundwave festival

Australia’s beloved heavy music festival Soundwave won’t be returning to Adelaide after this year’s run.

Its promoter AJ Maddah is renowned for his loyal communication with the festival’s punters on Twitter and often reveals information to them before an official statement is released. This instance is no different with the one-time Big Day Out promoter telling a fan with the Twitter handle @TaffetaPunks that organisers “can’t bring a show of this magnitude down again for so few people...”

Maddah sparked talk of a 2016 Adelaide snub on Twitter last week when one follower asked how ticket sales were looking for the February 21 and 22 leg, “Pathetic. Last SW in Adelaide unless it picks up in a big way,” he tweeted last Wednesday. Ticket sales for Adelaide did pick up following the tweet.

2015 is the first year festival organisers have decided to extend each date to two days but when punters urged Maddah to move it to a one-day event to aid sales, he refused. Soundwave's dealings with Adelaide City Council haven't exactly been favourable either; in April last year the Council released a statement revealing the festival's organisers had forfeited its $10,000 bond for last year's event due to a breach of noise criteria and noise bond conditions.

Earlier this month Maddah was at loggerheads with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Public Transport Victoria over transport for the festival's Melbourne fans. Following a Twitter tirade during which Maddah alleged the transport body was favouring City of Melbourne's all-night White Night festival over Soundwave, Andrews released a statement and agreed to run free shuttle buses from Melbourne Showgrounds this weekend.

Image: Soundwave's crowd for headliners Green Day at last year's Sydney leg.