Not Worth The Paper It’s Written On

Organizers of St. Gallen Festival are furious because they say they had written confirmation that Guns N’ Roses would perform at their event July 1st, but the act pulled out and played a rescheduled Zurich, Switzerland, show instead.

The U.S. rockers were due to play the 12,500-capacity Hallenstadion June 21st and, only days before show date, GNR agent John Jackson agreed it would also play St. Gallen. The festival was urgently trying to fill slots left vacant by late cancellations from Korn and Coheed and Cambria.

Harry Sprenger from Free & Virgin, which was promoting the Zurich show, said he had no objections provided St. Gallen wasn’t announced until after his show because he still hadn’t sold all his tickets.

It hasn’t been possible to get comment from Jackson but the Zurich show was canceled on the day because the drummer had to leave the tour to deal with a family matter.

Sprenger said he offered some alternative dates but only July 1st and August st1 fit the act’s schedule, with the latter being impossible because it’s Switzerland’s national day.

“When I got to the venue on the first date, not even the band’s crew had been told the show was off. It happened quite unexpectedly and we were all making lots of calls and letting everyone know,” he explained.

“I think it’s a very unfortunate incident that couldn’t be helped,” he added, expressing sympathy for St. Gallen and saying he wasn’t aware the event had a written confirmation.

Festival booker Christof Huber was far from happy as he believed getting a confirmation on Guns N’ Roses had gone a long way to solving his headliner problem.

The three-day (June 30th to July 2nd), 30th anniversary event fell about 12,000 short of the expected 90,000 sellout. But Huber feels the World Cup soccer tournament and an increasingly crowded Swiss festival season were also contributory factors.

Earlier in the summer, the second edition of the Greenfield Festival run by German promoters Folkert Koopmans and Dieter Boes did disappointing numbers and other Swiss festival organizers are said to be worried that they may not do as well this year.

Among the acts that did show up at St. Gallen were Franz Ferdinand, Manu Chao, Massive Attack, Deftones, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Eels, Maximo Park, Luut & Tuutli, Wolfmother, Fettes Brot, Tomte, Editors, Gogol Bordello, and Kettcar.

– John Gammon