(CelebrityAccess) — Sound Relief 2020, billed as a potentially international series of concerts to raise money for Australian bushfire relief, will not take place in March as originally announced.
The concerts, announced in early January, featured support from some of the leading promoters in Australia, including Live Nation Australasia, Chugg Entertainment, Frontier Entertainment, IMC, and Secret Sounds. The benefit concert traded on the brand of the original, highly successful Sound Relief concert which took place in 2009 and organizers reactivated Sound Relief’s original social media accounts to promote the event.
However, on Wednesday, organizers for the event announced they were pulling the plug on the planned concert without offering much insight into why they would not be moving forward with the event.
In a statement posted to Sound Relief’s website, a spokesperson said:
“It is with regret that the organizers of Sound Relief have decided not to proceed with concerts in March as originally planned. The outpouring of support by the Australian and International community in response to the devastation of the bushfires has been both incredibly humbling and moving, illustrated by the significant funds that have been donated to date.”
“Since announcing our intention to undertake Sound Relief 2020 the offer of assistance from International and Domestic artists, industry, media, and suppliers has been second to none. However Sound Relief is a series of concert events that we don’t wish to stage lightly and after careful consideration, we believe proceeding with the concerts in March won’t produce the impactful result that we believe these events can – and should – have.”
“We appreciate that there has been a huge amount of anticipation and desire from the public to support these concerts. In the past few months, we have seen fires, heartbreaking loss of life, ongoing drought, extreme storms, record temperatures, flooding and the devastation of our wildlife. It is clear that there is no overnight fix for the issues our beautiful country is currently facing, and our discussions for any future event are subsequently shifting to restoration, recovery and prevention and a view to maximizing results to best benefit these areas.”
The original Sound Relief, which was held in Sydney in 2009, drew more than 120,000 fans and raised $8 million to assist recovery from a series of fires and floods that affected Victoria and Queensland.
