MTT Fest the psych and indie rock festival that boasted artists from all over the world was scheduled to make its second Calgarian appearance from April 11 to 13. Unfortunately however organizers have cancelled its 2013 edition.
The news comes via a Facebook post from organizers which reads as follows:
Hey everyone
We’re super bummed to have to announce this but this years MTT Fest is cancelled. So sad I know…but key elements kept falling through to the point where we needed to pull the plug. This decision was very difficult to make but hey – Coachella had to cancel their 2nd year and look at them now. Refunds will be processed through eventbrite & sonicbids respectively. Sorry again everyone we’ll be back with a concert series during Stampede.
Stay tuned for more information on MTT’s future plans as it becomes available.
Update: Festival organizers Barnaby Bennett and Benson Simbirski shared more details with Fast Forward Weekly .
Can you specify a little more as to what some of the "key elements" were that made you pull the plug?
Barnaby Bennett: Yeah. We had a couple headliners drop out and couldn’t find satisfactory replacements. Also things kept not coming together.
Benson Simbirski: Also a financial backer decided to back out at the last minute.
BB: We had planned to bring a bunch of the headliners to The Waldorf in Vancouver on April 14th and then a week after setting that up The Waldorf shut down things like that kept happening and rather than scramble to put something on just for the sake of putting on a fest we decided to pull out and focus on our next endeavor which will be a concert series at NMC during Stampede. We also are going be doing a show with Telescopes and Fuxa the weekend of MTT Fest at NMC on April 13.
BS: Ricky from Brian Jonestown Massacre will be playing with LSD & The Search For God as well as DJing at the show too.
Cool. How long have you known MTT was cancelled? And has everyone been supportive of the decision or are there some upset people?
BB: We only decided this week. We’ve been trying our hardest to try to make it happen but it reached a point where we had to make the tough decision. People have been understanding obviously there’s a disappointment but people have been pretty chill which is nice.
That’s good. Will you attempt to return with a new MTT fest next spring? What will you do differently?
BB: We’ll see…
BS: We have a few plans for some different things like our concert series in July.
BB: We’re obviously bummed but life goes on….
