BREAKING: Legion Music Fest cancelled

Image: Legion Fest headliner Lordi

The initially fan-funded Legion Music Fest, co-founded by Devil You Know drummer John Sankey, has been cancelled.

In a statement emailed to TMN today, festival organisers said:

“Due to a number of business considerations, we have made the decision to not proceed with the proposed launch of Legion Music Fest in January 2017. The organisers thank all Aussie metal fans for their continued support.” 

Sources have told TMN: "This move may be due to Legion organisers working on a rumoured international venture late in 2017."

Legion also posted the following message on Facebook:

Legion Fest was set to kick off on January 21 next year, responding to the cancellation of the now defunct Soundwave Festival last December by taking in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. 

Its heavy music lineup included Lordi (Finland), Devildriver (USA), Devil You Know (USA), Capture The Crown (Aus), Dream On, Dreamer (Aus) and Polaris (Aus).

The festival was initially scheduled to take place in March this year but organisers announced they were forced to postpone to January 2017, citing timing, council issues, venue issues and securing headliners as reasons.

Crucially, though, at the time of rescheduling, Legion had only crowdfunded $327,000 of its $3.27 million target. 

In March, TMN reported the festival had reached its $3.27 million goal but it wasn’t through fan pledges on the event’s Pozible campaign page. The funding came as a result of Legion founders (Sankey, Mark Spillane and Kristie Lawrence) raising private funding themselves. 

Two donations of $30,000 were made from audio and production services company JPJ Audio, and merchandise, design and touring company Love Police.

The festival was slated to announce ticket prices, venues, on sale dates, headline artists and lineup additions shortly after reaching its funding target. However, despite regular posts on social media regarding music from the artist bill, Legion recently removed its tour poster from its social media accounts along with the “Landing January 2017” text and lineup from its official website.

One comment on a Facebook post by Legion reads: “[…] Rather than give an answer they update the website. There’s our answer I guess, fuck all is happening.”

Legion was created to give the local heavy music community a unique experience following the cessation of Soundwave, and whether it’s brought to life at a later date or not, Sankey, Spillane and Lawrence have not only shown that hunger for a heavy music event exists among music fans, but have demonstrated their own personal investment in that community.