The Flying Dutch – Swedish Edition Cancelled Over Concerns of Avicii’s Attendance

With the 2016 edition of The Flying Dutch festival coming to a close earlier this week, the groundbreaking Swedish Edition of the festival has been canceled by the organizers. The cancellation has been attributed to uncertainty over the presence of Avicii at the event.

The festival was scheduled to take place on July 30, with a star-studded lineup of Swedish talent like Alesso, Axwell Λ Ingrosso, Cazzette, Dada Life, Icona Pop, John Dahlbäck B2B Sebjak, Otto Knows and Steve Angello set to perform. The Swedish Edition was set to run in the same format of the traditional festival, with three events in the cities of The Hague, Nijmegen and Den Bosch. The acts were to be transported from city to city via helicopter.

“These past weeks we experienced major uncertainty about Avicii‘s presence at our event. Our request to Avicii to provide a guarantee of his attendance at our event went to no avail. This uncertainty is not longer acceptable. We can’t do that to our audience.”
– Allan Hardenberg of ALDA, via official press release.

Avicii announced earlier this year that he was going to retire from touring, but said he would honor all remaining shows. However, three weeks ago, he canceled the remaining shows of his residency at Encore Beach Club and XS Nightclub. His retirement will officially take effect on August 28 of this year, as he finishes off his Ushuaïa Ibiza residency.

“We regret this very much, also because these would be his final shows in our country. We understand that the fans will be disappointed, especially because everyone realizes how unique this event would have been. Everyone who had already bought a ticket will, of course, receive a full refund. They will be informed by us personally and our website will also contain information about how to get your money back.”
– John Ewbank, organizer, via official press release.

This year’s Flying Dutch festival sold out within a few hours, and saw 10 of the nation’s biggest talents take to the stage in the cities of Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Rotterdam. It took place on June 4, and was covered via livestream. The DJs who performed were Afrojack, Armin van Buuren, Firebeatz, Hardwell, Martin Garrix, Nicky Romero, Oliver Heldens, Showtek, Tiësto and W&W.