Soundwave 2015 Sydney / Photo: Liam Cameron

Soundwave Replacement Festival Legion Announces 2016 Dates

Now that Soundwave is dead, replacement festival Legion — “Australia’s first fan-funded heavy music festival” — has announced its plans for 2016, with dates locked in for Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Hitting Melbourne on 26th March, Sydney on 27th March and Brisbane on 28th March, the first-ever Legion festival will also host smaller club mini-festivals in Adelaide on 1st April and Perth on 2nd April.

In a video update (below), Devil You Know drummer and Legion mastermind John Sankey says the Adelaide and Perth legs of Legion 2016 will feature a selection of Legion acts.

“We didn’t want you guys to miss out, didn’t forget about you guys, so we’re really stoked that we can bring you something,” Sankey says.

As for the yet-to-be-revealed lineup, Sankey says the festival is keen to showcase both established acts and upcoming talent from Australia and from overseas. A number of bands which were billed for the now-cancelled 2016 edition of Soundwave are said to be confirmed for the festival.

Sankey says Legion is keeping crowd numbers to 10,000 at each east coast show in 2016. “It’s our number one goal to give every single one of you a great experience regardless of the acts on the lineup,” he says.

“We will also look at continuing to limit numbers each year within reason to enable us to provide the best experience possible to the fans.”

Legion’s crowdfunding campaign will be launched on 4th January, and the festival will only be able to use the money raised after it reaches its target. Legion also has plans to become a full-blown five-state festival by 2017.

Catch the festival’s 2016 dates alongside Sankey’s video update and open letter, below.

Watch: Legion Music Festival Update #2

https://youtu.be/tj1Oqlf5-Zc

Legion Festival 2016

Saturday, 26th March 2016

Melbourne

Sunday, 27th March 2016

Sydney

Monday, 28th March 2016

Brisbane

Friday, 1st April 2016

Adelaide (Club mini-festival)

Saturday, 2nd April 2016

Perth (Club mini-festival)

Open Letter: John Sankey (Via Legion Festival)

Hey guys!

As I’m sure everyone can imagine Legion HQ has been crazy busy behind the scenes working around the clock to pull together this major music festival for you all in a little over a week… and over Christmas too! Yep, not ideal but due to the dedication, belief and massive support from all involved we are excited to start communicating some of our plans, our thinking and our goals.

Let’s face it, we all love the music festival experience. The way we consume music may come and go, but this will never change. It means a lot of things to a lot of people. Whether it’s a rite of passage, discovering that new band that blows you away, a shared experience for you and a group of mates having a blast together, or purely as a way of getting to see that one act you have always wanted to see live. We have so many people contacting us saying they look forward all year to an event like this. The buzz, the sound, the smells?! and the pure feeling of loud, live, heavy music hitting you in the chest while standing alongside thousands of people all experiencing the same joy that you are feeling… this is what attracts us all to events like this.

We now have an opportunity to rally together and do something truly incredible. Through our commitment to this crowdfunding model, together we can help establish a future for the Australian live music scene and have our actions speak boldly to the world. Our number one goal with Legion music fest is to be able to establish an ongoing event driven by you, the fans as well as the artists, and produce it in a sustainable way so it will always be there for us.

We totally understand that you guys want to know the full line up asap and we are working incredibly hard with a large number of bands so that we can make all the artist announcements as quickly as we can. Rest assured we already have some killer bands locked in and we will be able to announce some of them by the time the crowd funding campaign goes live. Further artist updates will be released for everyone promptly as more acts are added to the bill. Keep in mind that the more you get behind this concept, the more the bands will realize how important this is to the Australian fans.

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