Nine Inch Nails have cancelled their inaugural Future Ruins festival due to “logistical challenges and complications”.
- READ MORE: Nine Inch Nails – ‘Ghosts: V-VI’ review: a timely two-part dip into daydreams and nightmares
The festival, created and curated by award-winning composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, was due to be the first of its kind, celebrating some of the world’s most influential film and television composers.
It was scheduled November 8, and due to be held across three stages at the Equestrian Center in Los Angeles.
However, the festival has now been cancelled, with a statement posted yesterday (October 3) on the festival’s social media pages reading: “Unfortunately Future Ruins will not move forward this year. The reality is, due to a number of logistical challenges and complications, we feel we cannot provide the experience that’s defined what this event was always intended to be.
“Rather than compromise, we’re choosing to re-think and re-evaluate. Meanwhile, we are sorry for any inconvenience and appreciate all the interest and support. Refunds will be automatically issued and ticket holders will receive an email with more information.”
The event was designed to be an immersive experience, bringing music from film and television to an environment where it has never been heard before, and encourages the artists to “take big swings and reimagine their work for a live audience – with performances ranging from electronic sets and live bands to orchestral performances.
The concept comes as Ross and Reznor have a rich history writing scores for film, as well as working together in Nine Inch Nails. Their award-winning work has included the composition for music in Watchmen, Gone Girl, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Social Network, Soul, Challengers and more.
The latter three saw them bag wins at the Golden Globes in 2010, 2020 and 2025 respectively, and the Luca Guadagnino movie Challengers also saw them shortlisted for both Best Original Score and Original Song at the 2025 Academy Awards. Since then, they have teamed up with Guadagnino again for the Daniel Craig-featuring film Queer, and also signed on as composers for the upcoming Disney sci-fi flick Tron: Ares.
Speaking about Future Ruins, Reznor said it was “about giving people who are, literally, the best in the world at taking audiences on an emotional ride via music the opportunity to tell new stories in an interesting live setting”.
The line-up included Danny Elfman – the composer behind films including Batman, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, Men in Black and Good Will Hunting – as well as John Carpenter (Halloween, They Live, The Thing), Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker, Chernobyl, A Haunting in Venice), Cristobal Tapia de Veer (Smile, The White Lotus, Black Mirror) and Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein (Stranger Things, Lost in the Night).
Questlove was on the bill too, due to present the score works of Curtis Mayfield.
The announcement comes after Nine Inch Nails announced a huge ‘Peel It Back’ tour back in January. Those shows will mark their first shows since 2022 and see them take to the stage in the UK, Europe and North America this summer. For the tour, they’ll be supported by Boys Noize and you can visit here to find remaining tickets.
In other NIN news, last year Trent Reznor announced that the band had been in the studio working on new material, adding that they were “ready to be back in the driver’s seat.” A new record would mark their first since the surprise 2020 ambient double album ‘Ghosts V-VI’, which followed 2018’s ‘Bad Witch’.
