Eardrums Rejoice: Sick New World Festival 2025 is Canceled

By Scott Roeben, on November 30 2024
3 min read 4 comments
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Finally, some wonderful news to report! The Sick New World “music” festival scheduled for April 12, 2025 at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds has been canceled.

The reason? “Unforeseen circumstances,” which is industry speak for “Draaaama!”

The 2024 installment of the Sick New World rock and metal festival was very successful, if by “very successful” one means “inflicting permanent cochlear damage on a large number of victims simultaneously.”

Heavy metal music can best be described as an existential rebellion against comprehensible lyrics and musicianship.

The organizers of Sick New World posted the cancellation notice on the event’s social media pages.

We’ll transcribe the message in case you deleted Twitter and have moved to Bluesky, whatever that might actually be.

Sick New World said, “It is with great disappointment that we announce that Sick New World will no longer take place in Las Vegas on April 12, 2025. Despite our best efforts, we’ve encountered unforeseen circumstances that we are unable to overcome for next year’s show. We extend our heartfelt thanks to the all the dedicated SNW fans who had made plans to join us for another cultural celebration of hard rock, goth, alternative and heavy music. Please stay tuned for further and future information regarding Sick New World. Tickets purchased directly from Front Gate Tickets will be automatically refunded to the original method of payment in as little as 30 days.”

The Sick New World 2025 line-up was ambitious. The bands included Metallica, Linkin Park, Queens of the Stone Age, Evanescence and a number of other acts we would not see even if the bands shot chicken parm into the crowd from chicken parm cannons throughout their performances.

How in the hell are chicken parm cannons not a thing, by the way?

As is our way, we’re here to recklessly speculate about why the festival was canceled so abruptly.

Why was the Sick New World 2025 music festival canceled?

First guess: Phil Ruffin, owner of Circus Circus and adjacent Las Vegas Festival Grounds, has been shopping Circus Circus, which makes us think he’s reluctant to make firm commitments into 2025 in case a buyer is circling and such fixed arrangements could complicate or delay a potential sale.

Second guess: Ruffin is a tough and demanding negotiator. Did unreasonable demands make Sick New World queasy? Remember, when the A’s were considering putting a ballpark on the festival grounds site, Ruffin reportedly wanted concession sales and parking fees.

Third, and the most reality-based: Sick New World didn’t have its shit together. That can mean a lot of things in the festival world. Most often, it means ticket sales weren’t meeting expectations. Despite the popularity of the bands in the line-up, general admission tickets were set at $472, with VIP tickets in the $1,800 range.

Also, the line-up was a smidge too ambitious. Some of the headliners involved cost a fortune (Metallica and Linkin Park were reportedly getting $5 million each, and that’s just two of 50 acts), and if ticket sales were lower than expected (despite the festival still being four months away), the numbers simply may not have penciled out. Basically, the event would need to sell out completely, and early results didn’t point in that direction.

The promoter, Live Nation, got cold feet (consulted with the accounting department) and pulled the plug.

Live Nation canceled a Latin music festival in L.A., Besame Mucho, just a few days ago. The reason sounds familiar: “Circumstances beyond their control.”

The music festival realm has become increasingly unpredictable and volatile.

The line-up determines ticket sales and revenue and clinching big names costs a lot. With shrinking margins, hosting music festivals has become a gamble.

Some have said 2024 is the year the music festival died.

Not-so-fun fact for music fans: More than 60 music festivals have been canceled in 2024 in the U.K.

Vegas-adjacent: For the first time in more than a decade, the Burning Man festival failed to sell out in 2024.

This year’s mutant offspring of the formerly-great Life is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas was underwhelming.

The recent Neon City Festival held in downtown Las Vegas during F1 reportedly lost $600,000 in its inaugural effort.

This is up for grabs for next year, Neon City Festival organizers!

Ironically, live music is thriving. The aforementioned Live Nation reported record revenue in 2023 ($23 billion), an increase of 36% over 2022. Those Ticketmaster fees really add up.

Festivals are a different beast, however.

Will other music festivals in Las Vegas be aborted? Have we ever mentioned we phrase things in the form of a question when we have no idea about something because we are not a fortune-teller?

Anyway, Sick New World 2025 is out. If you planned to attend, get your money back and spend it on something meaningful, like inventing a cannon to shoot nature’s perfect food into the mouths of music fans and thank you for your service.