Student Fest No-Shows

Ursynalia Warsaw Student Festival in Poland took a knock after several major acts pulled out just before the event, and it appears the promoter behind the student-run festival faced similar problems in 2009.

Acts pulling the plug included ZZ Top, Bad Religion, Steve Aoki, Five Finger Death Punch, and Polish rockers Anti-Tank Nun,  who all claimed they were advertised before contracts were signed or that their deposits didn’t arrive. 

They were all scheduled to play the third day of the May 31 to June 2 fest, which went on with Motorhead, Bullet For My Valentine, HIM, Parkway Drive, 3 Doors Down, Pendulum, and Gentleman, shifting a reported 12,000 tickets.

ZZ Top announced its cancellation a couple of weeks before the event, saying, “The group and its management has been forced to cancel the engagement due to the fact that the festival’s promoter have not complied with the terms of the contract that were previously agreed upon by all parties.”

Local reports suggest Arek Michalski, the man behind this year’s Ursynalia, repeatedly announced unconfirmed acts in order to stimulate slow ticket sales.

Michalski declined comment to Pollstar. Fans who bought tickets for the third day of this year’s festival can get a 50 percent discount on next year’s ticket, which Michalski is said to be working on.

In 2009 Michalski was behind Hunter Fest, which had no-shows from Motorhead, Machine Head, Tiamat, Arch Enemy and Epica. They pulled out claiming contractual reasons including the non-payment of deposits. Hunter Fest was salvaged when Motorhead returned to the bill after the deposit was eventually paid.

Some fans who’d bought tickets for Hunter Fest put tape on their festival T-shirts to cover the names of the acts that pulled out.