Australia’s Promise Village axed days after on-sale

A new Australian festival has been cancelled just five days after tickets went on sale.

Promise Village, presented by Triple J, was due to take place on 12 October at Langley Park in Perth with headliners Jorja Smith, J Hus and Headie One.

Festival co-founder Emal Naim told Perth Now that the event was pulled because there weren’t enough ticket sales or local government support.

“It unfortunately didn’t hold up to initial expectations and there was not much support to sustain costs, it just wasn’t feasible anymore,” he said. “We’ve made the decision indefinitely to not return to Perth, we’re scared to.”

Presale tickets went public five days ago while the general sale opened two days ago.

“It unfortunately didn’t hold up to initial expectations and there was not much support to sustain costs, it just wasn’t feasible anymore”

When the event was announced last month, festival co-director Naim said: “R&B as a genre now is as strong as ever, and it’s about time Australia gets a live experience dedicated to it. This has been a long time coming.”

The likes of Uncle Waffles, Headie One, Nemzzz, NSG DBN Gogo, Sarz, Jazmine Nikitta and Sasha Fern were also due to perform at the new festival.

The Promise Village line-up shared many acts with the established festival Promiseland – both of which were co-founded by Naim.

The next edition of the event, which was launched in 2022, is due to take place in October on the Gold Coast.

Naim’s company Festco is also behind Souled Out – a new festival that sold 75,000 tickets across five cities in Australasia for its inaugural edition – and Eden Festival in New Zealand.

The cancellation of Promise Village comes days after the Australian Festivals Association pleaded for “the ongoing war on festivals” to end.

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