Roxodus, a rock festival slated to take place in Ontario this week, was abruptly called off over the weekend due to months of bad weather.
The inagural event was set to take place from July 11 to 14 at Edenvale Airport. However, over the weekend, promoters MF Live said that the festival was cancelled after months of “tremendous rainy weather.”
“During the past couple of months, our venue at Edenvale Airport has battled tremendous rainy weather that has impacted our ability to produce the festival,” MF Live principal Fab Loranger said in a press release. “It is with a heavy heart that we announce the cancellation of the Roxodus Music Festival this year. Our team has worked tirelessly to find a solution in which the show can go on but unfortunately, we could not make it happen this year.
“Our dream of producing a ‘once in a lifetime experience’ has been put on hold as we take the much-needed time to nurture our venue into a premier landmark in Ontario. We sincerely thank all of the artists, sponsors, partners, and neighbors who have supported us from the very beginning. The embrace from our community has meant the world to us and we hope to one day see our dream come to life.”
While the weather has been relatively dry, the airport property was not a safe place to hold a festival, since it could be dangerous to build a stage on unstable ground, those close to the situation told Billboard. However, other sources told Billboard that the sudden cancellation could be due to low ticket sales after MF Live ran out of money after paying the big headliners upfront and did not have time to get the venue ready ahead of the event.
The festival has released a statement about the cancellation on its website but did not mention any information regarding refunds. Eventbrite released its own statement, noting that the festival’s organizers have “provided no indication that they will refund ticketholders,” so, they will issue refunds through an Eventbrite-funded Fan Relief Program.
“We believe attendees deserve to get their money back now,” Eventbrite said, ” so we have set up an Eventbrite-funded Fan Relief Program to make all Roxodus ticket holders whole while we continue to aggressively pursue the return of funds from the festival’s creators. We are transferring funds to ticket holders immediately and they can expect to see it reflected on their credit card or bank statement within seven business days.”
Roxodus would have included performances from Nickelback, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kid Rock, Aerosmith, and Alice Cooper, among others.
