Last Friday it was announced the Sonisphere Festival would not be returning to the UK for 2015, citing they couldn’t pull together a line-up that would be good enough. Now in an interview with Billboard, Sonisphere boss Stuart Galbraith has explained the situation.
In the interview Galbraith states the UK offers acts many more options compared to other European countries, as well the opportunity to play other festivals:
“In the UK rock or metal acts have the option to play Download or other festivals. Metallica played Glastonbury last year – this year they’re playing Reading and Leeds. Then you have smaller specialist festivals such as Bloodstock.“
Galbraith goes on to explain they had been negotiating with possible headliners since last summer, but talks broke down with one band at the turn of the year. This led to last Friday’s news that the festival would not be taking place this year.
"From July last year, even before the festival had taken place, we were discussing potential headliners and those conversations continued for six months. We had one last opportunity where we had a headliner that we felt would make sense. That fell through in the very first few days of January, which is why we then made the decision that we were not going to run this year.”
Stuart Galbraith is also the founder and CEO of Sonisphere promoters Kilimanjaro Live, who also organises the UK leg of the Vans Warped Tour. Although it did not take place in 2014, Galbraith says he has been discussing with Vans Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman about running in 2015.
The full interview can be viewed here.
