Desert Rock Canceled

Dubai’s Desert Rock Festival, which usually happens in early March, won’t be happening in 2010 and promoter Centre Stage Management is promising a statement in the next couple of days.

CSM started the event in 2004 and upped it to a two-day event in 2007. But last year it was dropped back to one day.

The festival Web site still carries the details of last year’s event, which featured Motorhead, Arch Enemy, Opeth, Chimaira, August Burns Red, Nervcell and Hatred.

Centre Stage head Jackie Wartanian, who was given an award for her “Outstanding Contribution to the Middle East Events Industry” in 2008, has overcome difficulties to make Desert Rock the region’s best-known festival.

In its debut year Limp Bizkit canceled its appearance 48 hours before the show, allegedly because frontman Fred Durst felt “unsafe” coming to the region. About 10,000 tickets had been sold but Bizkit’s cancellation cut the attendance to about 3,500.

Saxon was forced to pull out in 2006 after a media-driven campaign sparked by the local Arab-language version of Emirates Today, which ran a story highlighting the act’s lyrics including a song called “Crusader (The 12th Century).”