Apr 20, 2012

Brazil’s Open Air Metal Festival a Bust?

Brazil News

| SAO LUIS, Brazil – At least five metal bands, including Headhunter DC, Venom and Saxon have canceled their scheduled appearance at the Open Air Metal Festival in northern Brazil. The festival, which was to have kicked off this morning at 10:30 am local time, opened with a whimper: empty stage, no music, food, or beverages, reported various online media.

An empty staged greeted concert-goers at the Heavy Metal Open Air Festival in Sao Luiz, Maranhao, Brazil 20 April 2012

Empty Metal Open Air Stage (Photo: oimparcial.com.br)

Other national bands also canceled. The reasons given varied from non-payment to visa and transportation problems. The state consumer protection bureau (PROCON), city Fire Department and health inspectors are at the scene trying to ascertain what is going on with the show.

The public arrived early for the festival which is set to run Friday through Sunday at Independence Park. Some arrived as early as Thursday night. Concert goers reported problems right away with exchanging their ticket vouchers for the wristbands which would guarantee admittance each day.

According to some internet users who are on site, campers are having problems with access to the premises of the show. The Health Department says that because of the 15-hour duration of the show, consumers must have access to food but the producer had banned the entry of food.

The band Hanger announced on its Facebook page that it is no longer participating in the concert because the production company was to provide air transportation to the event but did not. They also say that they have been unable to contact the production company.

According to the spokesperson for the event, the problems associated with flight are hindering the progress of production and it is working to resolve the issue.

The production company issued a statement to clarify the problems related to some attractions of the festival. This is their statement in full:

Lamparina Produções, one of the parties involved in the production of MOA, received a report from the producer that it is facing some logistical problems with some of the bands. The producer also announced that all problems are being solved.
The Metal Open Air takes place this Friday, Saturday and Sunday (20, 21 and April 22) in Independence Park, in Sao Luis and the whole structure is already in final assembly, to ensure that all three days of much rock for metal fans throughout Latin America.

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Source(s) for this article: O Globo and O Imparcial

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