Why Was Big Day Out Cancelled? Is The Big Day Out Still Going?

The Big Day Out was cancelled because of financial mismanagement, increased competition, poor ticket sales and booking headliners it couldn’t afford.

There are also claims it tarnished its image by booking rapper Kanye West in 2012.

In 2005 Campbell Smith’s CRS Music Management took over running the Auckland show. It ran successfully for seven more years until a disastrous turnout in 2012.

There was no Big Day Out for Auckland in 2013, and the last hurrah was held at Western Springs in 2014.

Since its inception in 1992, Big Day Out has attracted a large range of artists, with headlining acts including Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Kanye West, The Smashing Pumpkins, The White Stripes, Chemical Brothers, Blink 182, The Strokes, Muse, Hole, Violent Femmes, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, The Ramones, Soundgarden, Rammstein, System of a Down, Limp Bizkit, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine, The Prodigy, Marilyn Manson, Foo Fighters, Metallica, Tool, The Offspring, Neil Young and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The annual festival has also been a launching platform for many Australian artists, with various acts performing on the tour multiple times, such as Silverchair, Regurgitator, Powderfinger, You Am I, The Living End, Jebediah, The Vines, Grinspoon, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Kisschasy, and Wolfmother.