Let’s Discuss: We Are The Ocean Pull Out Of Slam Dunk South To Play Different Festival

With less than three weeks to go until Slam Dunk Festival, We Are The Ocean have announced that they will be cancelling their appearance at its Southern England date in favour of playing BBC Radio 1‘s Big Weekend in Londonderry, Northern Ireland – but did the band make the right decision?

Unsurprisingly, the reaction from fans has been mixed. Those who had paid for a non-refundable ticket to see the Essex rockers at Slam Dunk were understandably angry. However, others congratulated the band on playing the free radio-sponsored event that is likely to see them gain extra airplay over the coming weeks.

Despite the obvious distance between Northern Ireland and England, the band are still promising to honour the remaining Slam Dunk tour dates so the Wolverhampton and Leeds dates are unaffected.

We Are The Ocean released the following statement explaining the situation and the decision they made:

“We just wanted to write something to say how sorry we are that we are unable to play this year’s Slam Dunk South in Hatfield.

The Slam Dunk weekend is one of our favourites of the year, Ben Ray has always been a big supporter of ours and Hatfield has been a great venue for us whenever we’ve played there.

However, when something as huge as Radio 1’s Big Weekend comes calling, we felt as a band we could not say no to it – Radio 1 have been massively supportive to us over the last couple of years, and we felt this was an invitation we really couldn’t turn down.

To everyone at Slam Dunk North and Midlands, we will be still be representing in Leeds and Wolverhampton (with the help of some hefty overnight ferries) and we hope all WATO fans that were hoping to see us at Slam Dunk South don’t hold it against us.

Once again we sincerely apologise, and hope you all have a great day in Hatfield nonetheless!

Liam, Alfie, Jack & Tom”

Slam Dunk Ltd also released a statement explaining that there will be a replacement booked and wished them “all the best”.

However, are you as understanding as Slam Dunk’s organisers?

Do you agree that they “couldn’t turn down” Radio 1’s Big Weekend, or do you think they should have honoured their previously booked festival?

Whatever your opinion is, get on your soap box and let us know in the comments section below.