Australia's DESTRUCTION OF OZ Festival Canceled!

August 7, 2003

Australia's Destruction Of Oz festival, which was set to include appearances by DORO, CRYPTOPSY, SODOM and MARDUK (among others),has been officially canceled due to poor ticket sales.

The following is a letter from the festival's organizer, Mark of Extreme Noize magazine, explaining the cancellation:

"To The Metal Community,

"As of today (August 6, 2003) we have officially closed the Destruction of Oz Festival. We are truly sorry to have to do this but feel we have no choice. Because of low sales, to continue we feel would not worthwhile. I have personally gotten professional advice of how many tickets we can expect to sell all up and the estimated amount would come nowhere close to cover the cost of putting such an event on. We feel it is better to cut our losses now than occur an even bigger expense by carrying on.

"To be honest, we do not know why sales are as low as they are, especially when they started selling well but it may be because of certain rumours that have been going around. The first one was that certain bands had dropped out — this is not true as all bands were still keen and very enthusiastic to come to Australia. The second rumour was that the event had actually sold out. It seems people could not even bother to ring their local retailer or Ticketek to verify whether this was even true or not and just accepted the fact. It is funny how rumors get around. Even to look on the guest book and people try to tell me that news travels fast along the grapevine and that they had heard the gig was cancelled — before I had even confirmed it or mentioned it to anyone. A word of advice — don't believe anything unless it comes from the horse's mouth so to speak.

"It is fair to say, that yes, we might have sold a lot more tickets before the actual gig, but as I said, going by ticket sales as they stood at the time of cancellation this is unlikely.

"We apologise to you all for the disappointment that you are sure to feel. Believe me — if anyone is more disappointed it is us. We have all put a lot of time, effort and money into this venture, all of which has been lost. We never organised this for money but decided to put this event on for you guys. Unfortunately, I guess not enough people were interested in seeing these bands after all.

"As for ticket refunds, yes, none of you have missed out. I have spoken to all the retailers involved and someone is also speaking to Ticketek on our behalf to make sure that ALL tickets are refunded including booking fee. This we will be paying at OUR cost, not yours. Please note though that tickets will not be refunded until after the 22nd of August as it is not as simple as just collecting your money. But guaranteed that these costs will be reimbursed to you. As for those who are traveling from interstate or who have been inconvenienced in some way, please contact us straight away so we can issue an official apology. Email: [email protected]. We are sorry that you have made the effort to come from places as far away as you have for it to end like this. You are all an example of true metal heads though, to have made the effort.

"Once again, our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience and thank you to those who had made the effort."

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