Fans Concerned As Paramore Suddenly Depart Festival Following Social Media Disappearance

Paramore have pulled out of iHeartRadio’s ALTer EGO festival a week before the event, fuelling break-up rumours and speculation around their recently finished contract with Atlantic Records. Pop-punk heroes Fall Out Boy have been announced as the band’s replacement.

ALTer EGO will now be headlined by Fall Out Boy, with the line-up also starring The 1975, The Black Keys, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Bush, Sum 41, Yellowcard, lovelytheband and The Last Dinner Party. The festival takes place on Saturday, 13 January, at the Honda Centre in Anaheim.

Paramore shared that they had dropped out of the festival via their Instagram Stories, where they wrote in a statement: “Due to unforeseen circumstances, Paramore can no longer attend and perform at iHeartRadio ALTer EGO on January 13. The band apologises for any inconvenience.”

Credit: Paramore

The band’s departure from ALTer EGO follows the recent scrubbing of their Twitter and Instagram pages. The social media blackout occurred after the band completed a world tour in support of their sixth album, This Is Why (which arrived in February 2023), thus meeting their contracted obligations with (now former) label Atlantic Records.

Fans are concerned that something could be happening behind the scenes, with a break-up and problems with label contracts discussed on social media.

Some fans also believe that Paramore could be joining the yet-to-be-announced Coachella 2024 line-up and departed ALTer EGO to meet the festival's strict non-compete clause, which prohibits artists from participating “at any other North American festival from December 15th to May 1st [and] in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Ventura, or San Diego from December 15th to May 1st.”

paramore posted on their story ... to pull out of playing alter ego pic.twitter.com/XzUUeeXSVO

— shi (@afterlauqhter) January 4, 2024

How it feels to be a Paramore fan rn: pic.twitter.com/vTjng3Q22i

— Mr. 28 Waist Size (derogatory) (@CrystalQveer) January 4, 2024

paramore: let's delete all our social media posts and confuse the fans

paramore fans: *mass panic* *don't break up* *they HAVE to say something at alter ego next week*

pmore: we have pull out of our first show of 2024 :(

mass panic begins. pic.twitter.com/hvZgdqctDJ

— josh🤘 (@Fellj01) January 4, 2024

Can't even fend paramore off from the disbandment rumours anymore like they're on their own at this point

— brett (@tinyhotopicbish) January 4, 2024

anyways, paramore at @coachella this year? 👀 https://t.co/c6uZ4St1Ft

— emma (@soymilkhoteI) January 4, 2024

Im going to explode but this is giving my hope cuz i saw stuff that says bands on coachella are not allowed to play shows Dec-May and that lines up

Plus paramore uses “the band” apologizes for any inconvenience

But also paranoid to the max regardless pic.twitter.com/zsKPBL6k2Y

— T. Jizz (@teejayiscool) January 4, 2024

Upon announcing their independence last month, Paramore said in an UPROXX cover story that they felt “a level of uncertainty” towards the prospect of the band’s future.

Comments from the members’ individual accounts sounded hopeful, though, as frontwoman Hayley Williams added, “The only thing that matters is we will still get to be each other’s community.” In his own comment, drummer Zac Farro shared the sentiment: “I just hope we can keep building the Paramore empire and then rule the world.”

Paramore returned to Australia for the first time since 2018 in November 2023, with writer Anna Rose proclaiming that Paramore delivered “pop-punk for the ages” and performed with “transcendent energy” in a The Music review of the group’s Brisbane (Meanjin) concert.