Party’s over.
Connecticut’s popular Soundside Music Festival shocked fans when it abruptly cancelled its star-studded event two months before its opening day.
“Due to circumstances beyond our control, [the] Soundside Music Festival has been cancelled,” organizers announced in a statement on the festival’s official website on Friday. “Tickets will be refunded to the original method of payment in as little as 30 days depending on your bank’s processing time.”
Festival organizers didn’t go into detail about what caused the cancellation.
Thomas Gaudett, the chief administrative officer for Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, alleged the festival was having trouble selling tickets, according to the CT Insider.
“It’s our understanding that this year’s lineup was drawing a lot fewer attendees than we have seen in the last few years,” Gaudett told the outlet. “And that may have had an impact on the decision to cancel.”
The cancellation allegedly blindsided Bridgeport officials, who insisted the city was “not involved in the decision-making process” and were told the project was being pulled after the decision was “finalized,” the outlet added.
The Post reached out to the festival for comment.
The festival was originally scheduled for Sept. 27 and 28 at Seaside Park in Bridgeport. It had already announced a massive lineup of alternative and electronic dance artists, including The Killers, Weezer, Hozier, Vampire Weekend, Alex Warren, and DJO.
The festival wiped its social media accounts, including its Instagram and Facebook pages, which had over 52,000 combined followers after the announcement.
Fans have complained about ticket prices in recent months, according to a public Facebook fan page for the festival.
General admission for a single-day ticket to the festival started at $170, according to the Soundside Music Festival’s now-deleted ticket page.
“Maybe if they weren’t so greedy with the high ticket cost there would have been higher volume of tickets sold,” one Facebook user speculated on the fan page.
“I personally wasn’t into the lineup this year, but everyone has different taste,” another added.
Last year, the festival had record attendance, with 57,000 concertgoers swarming the waterfront festival — despite the Foo Fighters dropping out late, according to the CT Post. Officials had expected 32,000 people to show up.
The Foo Fighters withdrew from the headlining gig after frontman Dave Grohl revealed that he cheated on his wife, Jordyn Blum, and welcomed a daughter outside of his marriage.
Previous headliners included John Mayer, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stevie Nicks and Dave Matthews.
The inaugural Sound on Sound festival, which was eventually rebranded as the Soundside Music Festival last year, took place in 2022 and was produced by Governor’s Ball producers Tom Russell and Jordan Wolowitz, Live Nation, and developer Howard Saffan, according to CT Insider.
Read the full article here