Major Touring Festival Loses International Headliner Just Days Out

The return of touring event Festival X has taken a major hit just days out from kicking off, with much-hyped headliner Megan Thee Stallion no longer performing.

The team behind the large-scale festival from Stereosonic founders Hardware and Onelove has stated that “due to unforeseen circumstances, Megan Thee Stallion will not be able to travel to Australia to perform at Festival X".

“Whilst our goal is to present the best experience for fans, despite our best efforts, it will not be possible to find a replacement at such short notice,” they said.

“However, with over 30 artists making up this year’s line-up – including Calvin Harris, Don Toliver, Boys Noize, Green Velvet, Nina Kraviz and so many more – we are looking forward to catching you on the dancefloor for Festival X and officially kicking off summer 2022!

“If you have any concerns, please visit Moshtix Customer Service and register your enquiry before 5PM on Friday 25th November.”

Festival X made its debut in 2019, taking over Melbourne and Sydney; its return will see it hit up those two cities alongside Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth.

Representing “the best in hip hop and electronic dance music across multiple, hand-crafted stages”, Festival X 2022 will also host John Summit, Luude, Marlo, Anna Lunoe and more.

DATES & VENUES

Saturday 26th November 2022 - Melbourne - Flemington Racecourse

Sunday 27th November 2022 - Gold Coast - Alabaster Sports Fields

Friday 2nd December 2022 - Adelaide - Bonython Park

Saturday 3rd December 2022 - Sydney - Sydney Showground

Sunday 4th December 2022 - Perth - Burswood Park

For more details, head to the Festival X website.

Recently Megan Thee Stallion was granted a restraining order against her record label, 1501 Certified Entertainment, and her distributor, 300 Entertainment, from a Texas judge. In legal documents witnessed by TMZ Hip Hop, the Thot Shit rapper claimed that her label made "threatening and retaliatory" actions to block her from using her own music at the American Music Awards this week.

And last month she posted a teaser to her Instagram suggesting that she might be featured in the fifth and final season of Stranger Things.

Earlier this week, The Music published an in-depth conversation with Hardware founder Richie McNeill to discuss its 30th anniversary, upcoming anniversary shows, Stereosonic and more.

"I went onto Wikipedia to try and update [the entry for] Stereosonic and they said, 'You can't update it…' I'm like, 'I owned the bloody thing and founded it. I wanna update these facts and add more artists that played on the bill – and on that year of 2013…' And they wouldn't let me do it. It was mine!” McNeill said.

"It was like, 'This is shit – I can't even update the Wikipedia page on Stereosonic that I fucking founded.' There was all this information missing. So I'm like, 'I've gotta do something about it. Our birthday's coming up. So what am I gonna do?'"

The answer was to release a book a commemorative coffee table book, True Faith: 30 – 30 Years Of Hardware.

You can read the full chat here.