Blur has announced that they will not be performing at Big Day Out at Western Springs Stadium, accusing event organisers of "constantly shifting goalposts".
The Britpop band posted on their Facebook page, stating, "Devastated to report that Blur won't be performing at BDO in 2014. It’s a shock that it has come to this. Only 8 weeks to go, the band feels that with the constantly shifting goalposts and challenging conditions of the organisers, they can't let it drag on any longer and want to make this announcement, to be clear to Blur fans that they won't be there. We've done our very best to work with the organisers and considered every option to make it happen, but they’ve let us down and let everyone else down too."
Big Day Out organisers were blindsided by the news, with Australian promoter and Big Day Out investor AJ Maddah saying he was confused about why the band were blaming the organisers, "as we accommodated all their reasonable wishes".
The announcement comes after a shaky few years for Big Day Out, with Kanye West pulling out of most of his committments with the festival in 2012, and no Auckland show for 2013.
The festival released an official statement on their Facebook page in regards to Blur's cancellation, saying, "We were disappointed to learn of Blur’s cancellation via their Facebook page yesterday morning. We are working on replacements and will bring you new additions to the Big Day Out lineup shortly"
Big Day Out promoters says Blur fans can get a refund if they are not satisfied with the new headliner.
