BIG DAY OUT Organizers Confirm METALLICA's Participation In Next Year's Event

July 2, 2003

The organizers of Australia's Big Day Out festival, Ken West and Vivian Lees, flew to the Roskilde festival in Denmark last the weekend to see METALLICA perform in front of 90,000 people, and ensure the group's fans could be controlled before signing them as their event's main drawcard.

"Roskilde was our last window, to see what the momentum of the crowd was like, how much tonnage was involved," West told The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday. "And it was good."

Crowd control has become the festival's central safety issue, after Jessica Michalik, 15, was crushed to death during LIMP BIZKIT's concert slot at the Sydney Big Day Out festival in 2001.

Last year, Big Day Out introduced new safety measures including a D-barricade, which extends in an arc from each side of the stage to the mixing tower, with a walkway to grant security staff access to the crowd.

METALLICA will perform dates outside the Big Day Out in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane as well as sideshows in Auckland, Perth and Adelaide.

METALLICA play Brisbane Entertainment Centre on January 19, Sydney Entertainment Centre January 21 and Melbourne Myer Music Bowl January 28.

Tickets for all shows go on sale July 14.

The shows for Auckland, Perth and Adelaide are yet to be announced.

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