Sydney MC Miracle, one of the artists unable to perform at Soulfest Melbourne / Photo: Liam Cameron

Soulfest Melbourne Ditched Its Entire Local Lineup Last-Minute

Soulfest has continued its rocky inaugural outing, with the festival shutting down its local artist stage in Melbourne. The announcement was made shortly before gates opened, much to the surprise and chagrin of fans and Aussie acts like Ngaiire and Miracle.

As TheMusic.com.au points out, a statement was posted on Soulfest’s Facebook yesterday morning, claiming that a “combination of operational and logistical issues” meant the Spotify local stage would not operate as advertised and that “all local artists will not be appearing”.

Sydney artist Ngaiire sent an apology for not being able to appear, and said they were shocked to find out the local stage had be shut down after landing in Melbourne raring to go.

“Sorry we can’t make tonight’s Soulfest,” wrote Ngaiire, complete with a sad face emoji. “We got to Melbourne and then literally had to turn right around due to the festival’s own issues. We had a surprise in the form of [Hiatus Kaiyote singer] Nai Palm getting up and everything!”

Sydney rapper Miracle was a little more philosophical. “Even though the spotify stage got canned I still had an amazing time at soulfest in Melbourne,” he wrote to Facebook.

It hasn’t been the smoothest start for Soulfest. The festival’s Sydney debut was marred by one of the bill’s most popular acts, Mos Def, failing to turn up after missing his flight. Sound problems also plagued the Sydney event, continuing throughout the day and into the headline set from D’Angelo, who is making his Australian live debut as part of the festival.

Correction 20/10/14: A previous version of this article claimed incorrectly that M-Phazes was one of the artists booked to perform on the local artist stage. M-Phazes was in fact booked to perform on the festival main stage and his performance went ahead as planned.

Photos: Soulfest 2014 – Sydney, Victoria Park 18/10/14

Soulfest 2014 Australia

D’Angelo

Common

Aloe Blacc

Mos Def

Maxwell

Anthony Hamilton

Angie Stone

Ngaiire

Musiq Soulchild

Leela James

Nathaniel

Ms Murphy

Miracle

DJ Trey

Saturday, 18th October 2014

Victoria Park, Sydney

Tix: Via Soulfest

Sunday, 19th October 2014

Yarra Park, Melbourne

Tix: Via Soulfest

Saturday, 25th October 2014

The Riverstage, Brisbane

Tix: Via Soulfest

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