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Organisers of Sonisphere festival have revealed the event will not take place in 2013, despite recent promises of line-up announcements before Christmas this year.
Organisers hope Knebworth festival will return in 2014, and claim that they were unable to secure a strong enough line-up to draw festival crowds.
"We think it is really important that the event only runs when it has a line up that sets it apart from the competition whilst also carrying a ticket price that allows us to offer real value for money to the music fans,’ say organisers in a statement.
"We were hoping to do that in 2013 but unfortunately it wasn’t possible to fulfil both aims with the principle problem of there being a lack of available headliners of the calibre of previous festivals at Knebworth.
"We made offers to over a dozen major artists but for various reasons none of these offers lead to securing a strong bill.’aw the crowds."
Queen and Adam Lambert were due to headline Sonisphere 2012
At the start of December, organisers were speaking excitedly of their hopes for the festival's 2013 return.
"We're working on a bill now, hopefully to announce before Christmas. Cancelling it last year was a hiccup," says Stuart Galbraith, the CEO of Kilimanjaro Live, who also blames late announcements in 2012 for the reasons behind the struggles they faced this year.
Sonisphere was cancelled on 29th March 2012 with an official statement apologising to fans and blaming the 'challenging' UK festival scene this year.
"Putting the festival together in what is proving to be a very challenging year was more difficult than we anticipated and we have spent the last few months fighting hard to keep Sonisphere in the calendar," said Sonisphere in a statement in March. "Unfortunately circumstances have dictated that we would be unable to run the festival to a standard that both the artists and that Sonisphere’s audience would rightly expect."
The news of Sonisphere's cancellation was initially leaked by scheduled headliners Queen, who later moved their performance, which included US singer Adam Lambert as frontman, to London shows Hammersmith Apollo.
There were also fears that the loss of Sonisphere could spell financial disaster for the Knebworth Estate, where the festival is held.
Evanescence, Kiss, Faith No More, Marilyn Manson and Cypress Hill were also on the line-up at the cancelled 2012 event.
Photos: the best bits of Sonisphere 2011 - can 2013 match it?
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