Future Music Festival scrapped
Perth's biggest outdoor music festival is on the scrapheap, with Future Music Festival organisers announcing this morning the event will not return anywhere in Australia next year.
In news that almost spells the end of the one-day touring music festival pioneered by the Big Day Out, Mushroom Group - the company run by veteran promoter Michael Gudinski and co-owner and promoter of Future Music - said in a statement "underperforming ticket sales" had led to the decision.
It said the call was "not made lightly" but it came to a point where it "made no more sense to continue".
"The day of the large scale travelling festival in its current form is unfortunately numbered," Mushroom said in the statement.
"(But) we believe in the festival industry in Australia," Mr Gudinski added. "And plan to announce an exciting new festival concept in the coming months."
The company said Good Life, the underage festival which shared many acts with Future Music this year, would continue.
Future Music has been touring Perth every year since 2007, and stole the mantle as Perth's biggest one-day music festival from the Big Day Out in 2012.
It attracted crowds of about 35,00 to 40,000 in the three years from 2012 to 2014.
The promoters this year's event, which took place at Arena Joondalup last month, told _The West Australian _about 35,000 revellers attended.
However industry insiders suggested the number was closer to between 20,000 to 25,000.
This year's festival was distinctively guitar-free, with urban king Drake, super-DJ Avicii and dance legends the Prodigy headlining an array of acts dominated by EDM (electronic dance music).
And speaking to _The West Australian _in February Future Music director Brett Robinson said the festival continued to succeed as it was "willing to jump around the genres and take risks".
"I think a lot of other music festivals have possibly failed because they haven't done that," Mr Robinson said at the time.
After taking a year off, the Big Day Out is set to return next year, however its new US-based owners have not yet revealed the format.
The boutique indie-focused Laneway Festival is the sole remaining one-day nationwide touring festival, while heavy metal and hardcore music-focused Soundwave Festival tours around the country but did not come to Perth this year.
Mushroom Group bought into Future Music Festival two years ago, with reports at the time suggesting its previous owner Future Entertainment was burdened with a huge debt bill.
