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Roxodus Music Festival Cancelled

Canadian music fans this morning woke up to the news that with just a week to go, the organisers of the Roxodus Music Festival have cancelled the event due to weather conditions, citing that over recent months heavy rain has left venue grounds saturated, leaving them with the inability to produce the festival.

Due to take place over four days and kick off on July 11th at the Edenvale Airport in Clearview Township. An official statement was released this morning and doesn’t even mention rescheduling, only that they ”hope one day to see their dream come true;”

“During the past couple of months, our venue at Edenvale Airport has battled tremendous rainy weather that has impacted our ability to produce the festival. It is with a heavy heart that we announce the cancellation of the Roxodus Music Festival this year. Our team has worked tirelessly to find a solution in which the show can go on but unfortunately, we could not make it happen this year. Our dream of producing a ‘once in a lifetime experience’ has been put on hold as we take the much-needed time to nurture our venue into a premier landmark in Ontario. We sincerely thank all of the artists, sponsors, partners, and neighbors who have supported us from the very beginning. The embrace from our community has meant the world to us and we hope to one day see our dream come to life. Information about ticket refunds will be released shortly.”

Boasting headline acts such as Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Billy Idol, Blondie, Kid Rock and Nickelback, but with only 20,000 tickets being sold and issues with permits only being resolved on June 19th it leaves me wondering if this was a rather ambitious venture from the very beginning, and when situations like this happen it leaves fans reeling, with not only the loss of money for tickets, but also hotels, time off work and even flights.

Artists also don’t come out of this unscathed, with the backlash of frustrated fans asking “did they know?” “Why didn’t they do something about it?” when actually at the end of the day they are totally in the dark too.

Everything being said, hopefully the organisers will stick to their statement and make full refunds, because at the end of the day, fans will always want to go live gigs, and artists will always want to perform live, so as sad as this is to say this probably won’t be the last live music venture the bite the dust, leaving fans with a bad taste in their mouths.