Austin’s Sound on Sound Festival Canceled Due to ‘Roadblocks’

UPDATE: Organizers for the Sound on Sound festival have released a new itinerary of rescheduled shows, including Grizzly Bear, Japandroids and the Shins. 

Austin, Texas’ Sound on Sound Festival, which was set to host artists like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Iggy Pop, Grizzly Bear and more in November, canceled the three-day fest Friday due to “recent roadblocks.” Ticket buyers were promised 100-percent refunds.

“We are extremely saddened to announce today that Sound On Sound Fest 2017 is being cancelled,” the festival said in a statement. “This is one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make. Due to several recent roadblocks outside of our control and in an effort to do right by our fans, the decision to cancel the event was our only real option.”

While the Sound on Sound fest, which held its inaugural festival in 2016 at the Sherwood Forest Faire, didn’t specify why the festival was canceled a month before it was scheduled to take place, the Austin Chronicle reports that one of the organizers’ primary investors pulled out for unknown reasons. Even though ticket sales for the fest were “on track,” it’s possible that artists asking for more money up front in the aftermath of the infamous Fyre Festival also potentially played a role.

Despite the festival’s cancellation, the “majority of the artists” involved were working with local promoters to perform in Austin the weekend of November 10th through 12th, organizers added.

“We are planning to book these shows at venues throughout Austin,” organizers wrote on the fest’s site. “Sound On Sound Fest ticket holders will have first access to purchase tickets to the newly booked shows and will be emailed a link to buy in advance of the public show announcement.”

The Sound on Sound Festival was also among four dates the Yeah Yeah Yeahs had scheduled in support of their upcoming Fever to Tell reissue; it’s unclear if the band will schedule a different Austin date. “Like many of you we JUST heard the news that [Sound on Sound] has been cancelled,” the band wrote on Instagram. “We are majorly bumming hard. Just processing this now, more soon…”

According to the fest’s site, “There are no current plans to continue the festival” in 2018.