Festival boss AJ Maddah cancels Harvest and is rumoured to have bought into Big Day Out

FESTIVAL promoter AJ Maddah has reportedly added Big Day Out to his stable of events as he confirms Harvest cancellation on Twitter.

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A DIZZYING game of musical chairs among Australian festival promoters overnight saw the nascent Harvest event cancelled for 2013 and its boss AJ Maddah reportedly buy into the Big Day Out.

Maddah, who also created Soundwave and is consulting on the return of Warped to Australia later this year, confirmed the demise of Harvest via Twitter last night.

"I am very sad to confirm that Harvest 2013 is cancelled. All tickets will be 100% refunded (incl all charges) by oztix in the next week," he posted last night.

"Will be announcing headline shows by most of the Harvest artists in the next 10 days.

"Those who have purchased Harvest tickets will be given priority access to these headline shows. Please stay tuned for details."

Maddah spent an hour on Twitter answering questions from fans and apologising for the failure of the event which was to star Massive Attack, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and the Drones this year.

"I didn't want Harvest to end up being 1 one of those festivals that leaves creditors in its wake and destroys suppliers," he posted.

"Obviously I did a poor job of booking the festival and I should be the only 1 to be punished for it."

The cancellation came a few hours after Big Day Out co-founder Viv Lees announced on Triple J that his former partner Ken West had sold his stake of the travelling musical circus to Maddah.

Lees shocked the industry when he split with West in November 2011 after 20 years of promoting the touring festival.

West then partnered with American promoters C3 Presents who stage several annual events including Lollapalooza.

The shift in ownership of the Big Day Out comes just weeks after Frontier Touring boss Michael Gudinski announced he had bought into the financially strapped Future Music festival.

Future announces its line-up for 2014 later this afternoon.

While the Australian summer festival calendar is undergoing dramatic changes, it appears the regional Falls events in Lorne, Victoria, Marian Bay, Tasmania and now Byron Bay are doing strong ticket business.

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