Daimonous Open Air (Indonesian music festival) drama…

So a few days ago Behemoth posted up the following photo with caption regarding not being able to get to Bali for their highly anticipated performance at Daimonous Open Air music festival:

Daimonous Open Air

 

As any festival organizer who feels they actually were not the ones in the wrong, D.O.A. festival organizers wanted to clear themselves of wrongdoing and posted up a message in Bahasa that was loosely translated by a friend as the following:

Daimonous Open Air

“We, the organizers of Daimonos Open Air, would like to clarify the cancellation of the band Behemoth’s performance in Bali. We as the event organizer had indeed already completed the documents as required; in the form of licenses, payment fees for Behemoth, and flights from Osaka to Denpasar.

So the error is NOT from the event organizer (us) but of the Booker (Dede Suhita). Dede Suhita was the Booker of Behemoth for the 18 October 2015 (LUNAS) performance date. Because the amount of controversy and the situation, we were placed on call by the police and deal with the police shows CANCELLED [Editor’s note: I have no idea what this means – I think they mean that the police were the ones who finally closed the curtains on this festival?]

Sorry to all those who feel upset, especially to the band and the fans who came and bought presale tickets. Presale tickets will be refunded. 

I apologize for this inconvenience and thank you for your understanding,
DAIMONOUS OPEN AIR”

As we know with how shady things can get with certain festivals and promoters in Southeast Asia, the mess that this seems to have become is really not surprising at all. Having booked and dealt with promoters in Indonesia I can say that there are definitely stand up 100% honest and professional promoters in Indonesia, AND there are 100% shady as hell, never-know-what-you’re-dealing-with promoters there as well. So it’s really a roll of the dice when you begin looking at booking shows in Indonesia. Luckily, we have good contacts down there who will tell us straight up whether or not a show is doable, none of this confirming show first and then two days before cancelling or not going through with the show all together while the band is already on their way there.

What are your thoughts?

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