Sick New World festival has cancelled its planned 2025 edition only weeks after announcing the line-up.
- READ MORE: Metallica live in Amsterdam: still the greatest heavy metal band around
The festival, which focuses on rock, nu-metal and industrial, shared the line-up for its third year in October.
Previously set to take place at Las Vegas Festival Grounds on April 12, over 50 names were announced, with Linkin Park and Metallica to headline alongside performances from Evanescence, Queens Of The Stone Age, Gojira and AFI.
Also initially slated to play were The Flaming Lips, the Sisters Of Mercy, Meshuggah, Cradle Of Filth, X, Refused, Cannibal Corpse and Lacuna Coil. Meanwhile, Louisiana sludge metallers Acid Bath were due to reunite with their first show since 1997 at the festival.
Now, though, organisers have announced the festival’s cancellation due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
In a statement shared to Instagram yesterday (November 29), the festival wrote: “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 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.”
Acid Bath’s planned reunion was set to include three of the band’s founding members, with lead singer Dax Riggs, guitarist Sammy ‘Pierre’ Duet and guitarist Mike Sanchez on board. Founding keyboardist Tommy Viator died earlier this year.
Pierre re-shared the festival’s cancellation post, writing: “Sorry everyone…. see yall in Columbus at @sonictemplefestival”. Their performance on May 9 2025 at Sonic Temple Festival in Columbus, Ohio will now be their first reunion show.
Last year, the likes of System Of A Down, Slowdive and Slipknot played at Sick New World, the latter celebrating the 25th anniversary of their self-titled debut album and performing a career-spanning setlist.
System Of A Down played the inaugural festival in 2023, too, while Korn, Deftones and Incubus were also among the biggest names to perform.
Earlier this year – in the middle of their ‘M72’ world tour – Metallica frontman James Hetfield told The Metallica Report that the thrash icons have no plans to become a “legacy band”.
He said: “We know people wanna hear the ‘best of’. And you’ve gotta challenge them to listen to some of the new stuff as well, ’cause we certainly don’t wanna be a legacy band that just plays their greatest hits and then that’s it.”
NME gave the opening night of the tour in 2023 a four-star review, saying: “Metallica have always been a gateway band for heavy music, but there’s a renewed excitement around them now. Tonight’s surprising, ambitious and giddy gig matches that energy at every turn. Their closing crossover track ‘Master Of Puppets’ naturally goes off, but then so do all of the songs on the setlist. From the gorgeous ‘Nothing Else Matters’ through to the unifying ‘Seek & Destroy’, the majesty of heavy music is on full display throughout the gig as Metallica prove why they’re clearly still the greatest metal band around.”
Meanwhile, Linkin Park played their first shows since 2017 last month – including one at London’s O2 Arena. The nu-metal band reformed with a new vocalist, Emily Armstrong, following the death of Chester Bennington that year, and are set to release their first album since 2017’s ‘One More Light’, ‘From Zero’, on November 15, too.
Queens Of The Stone Age’s slated performance at Sick New World comes after the band rescheduled their tour dates for 2025, which happened as to the band scrapped its remaining dates for the year in order to allow frontman Josh Homme to receive “essential medical care”.
