Photo: Facebook
The Drive Like Jehu-curated All Tomorrow’s Parties has officially ‘crashed and burned’, despite the fact that there’s less than a week until it was due to take place.
The event has been plagued by cancellation rumours pretty much since its inception, partly fuelled by the fact that Jabberwocky - also promoted by All Tomorrow’s Parties - was cancelled at the last minute in 2015, with ATP insisting that it wasn't their responsibility to refund tickets.
Though the Stewart Lee-curated edition went off relatively smoothly this past weekend, it’s now been revealed that this weekend’s scheduled Drive Like Jehu edition - which was due to host the likes of Hot Snakes, Wire, Metz, The Ex and many more - will not be going ahead.
In a statement on Drive Like Jehu’s Facebook, alongside a picture of some loo roll with 'ATP' written on it, the band wrote, "After 4 months of a long and bumpy ride, the wheels finally fell off the wagon and crashed and burned.”
They continued, "It’s a uniquely cruel hoax to appeal to Drive Like Jehu’s ego and ask us to create a program based on personally inviting the bands and musicians that have inspired us and changed the way we hear music and then subject them and their supporters to this. “
They continued, “Although the internet is hardly a reliable source for fact, this whole mess has the extra sting of this not being an isolated incident. 48 hours ago word started to trickle in that Barry hadn’t honored his agreement with many of the bands. These bands were not canceling, but rather did not have the promised means to attend.”
Last month, fear spread among fans after the venue of Pontins in Prestatyn told customers that 'organisers had cancelled the event', but ATP responded that this was due to a 'miscommunication' and that both events would 'go ahead as planned’.
Now, the festival has confirmed the cancellation on its Facebook, saying, "All Tomorrow's Parties 2.0 Curated by Drive Like Jehu will no longer be going ahead. Refunds will be issued to all customers. After working through all options, including moving the event from Prestatyn to Manchester, we have had to accept defeat due to its lack of financial viability. We would like to apologise to everyone involved, especially to our customers who were planning to attend the event."
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