Blondie and Alice Cooper have confirmed that the inaugural Pandemonium Rocks festival will go ahead.
In a new statement captioned, “The show must go on. And it will!” shared on the Debbie Harry/Blondie X (formerly known as Twitter) account, the Rapture band wrote that they and Alice Cooper “have worked closely together” for several weeks to make the event happen while acknowledging that “serious challenges” have threatened the festival tour.
They also wrote that alterations have been made to the original line-up, plus new dates and a change in venues in Queensland.
“We are excited to be coming to Australia 20th-28th April for Pandemonium, although there have had to be some changes,” the statement reads.
According to the new statement, the line-up has effectively halved. Deep Purple, Placebo, Dead Kennedys (already confirmed yesterday), Gang Of Four, Gyroscope and Petch are out, while Blondie, Alice Cooper, The Psychedelic Furs, Wheatus, Wolfmother, Palaye Royale, and Cosmic Psychos are still on board.
Pandemonium will go ahead as a one-stage event. The Melbourne and Sydney venues remain the same, but the Gold Coast spot—previously Doug Jennings Park—has moved to the Broadwater Parklands, while the Sunshine Coast venue—previously the Sandstone Point Hotel—has moved to Brisbane’s Eatons Hill.
Meanwhile, what was meant to be two Newcastle sideshows has merged into one indoor Pandemonium event on Tuesday, 23 April. Blondie ended the post by reminding punters they won’t appear at the Brisbane festival date.
You can read the complete statement below.
In other Pandemonium news, a new statement was posted to Instagram today, with organisers promising to share the “full location, lineup and ticketing update” on Monday (8 April).
Before the news of possible “alterations” and changes to the set-up was announced last month, Pandemonium blasted reports that the festival was cancelled after Nine News Gold Coast claimed the event was off.
In January, the festival faced its first major controversy in New South Wales for its initial ANZAC Day event at The Domain, later moving venues to Cathy Freeman Park.
After explaining the venue change, Apex Entertainment CEO Andrew McManus commented, “We’ve put together a brilliant line-up of iconic rock’n’roll acts that is set to deliver an amazing day of music, no matter the location.”
