Campbell Smith says NZ BDO 'has got to keep going'

Herald online

25 Jun, 2014 10:50 PM2 mins to read

Campbell Smith says the Big Day Out will be back. Photo/Brett Phibbs

Auckland Big Day Out promoter Campbell Smith is confident the event will return to Auckland in 2016 after missing next year.

Speaking from Los Angeles this morning, he told nzherald.co.nz the hiatus brought on by American promotion giant C3 Presents taking full ownership of the BDO tour from Australian promoter AJ Maddah was all to do with the festival's Australian troubles.

The 2014 Auckland show, which attracted some 40,000 fans to Western Springs, had been a success.

"But it is not economically viable to bring the Big Day Out to Auckland alone," he said.

"The Auckland show was a standout show and a success but it is no secret the Australian shows didn't go so well."

Smith had called it quits on the festival after a poor showing at 2012, the last time the festival was at Mt Smart Stadium before its revival at Western Springs this year.

"You need to look at it the same way as we did in 2012. It was not great and we decided we weren't going to do it again and we brought it back a year later. I think it was really embraced but the same thing didn't happen in Australia."

The Big Day Out has a five year resource consent to be at Western Springs from Auckland City. Smith said the consent would still stand despite the event missing a year.

C3 Presents are also the owners of the American Lollapalooza tour and some Australian media had speculated the Big Day Out would be re-branded to the US touring festival name but Smith said he had had no conversations about a change.

Smith said he remained personally committed to the festival, despite the upheavals of recent years.

"I love the Big Day Out. I was distraught in 2012 and I didn't think we would be back. Bringing it back, it was so successful, and it reinvigorated me. I'm excited to keep doing it.

"I think to get that show into Western Springs, we probably should have done that 10 years ago. We have got it set up nicely there, so we have got to keep going."