Earlier this year, there were rumblings American Idol‘s Adam Lambert was going to become the new frontman for Queen. That rumor got downgraded to “frontman for two nights only,” and today Glambert is down 50 percent of his gigs. As the band has confirmed via their website, their July 7 performance at 2012’s Sonisphere Festival in southern England — meaningful because that stage was the location of the band’s “last stand with Freddie” — will not be happening because the entire festival has been canceled.
Reuters reports reports that festival organizers are citing economic difficulties for the cancellation, inadvertently highlighting the current financial challenges of putting on a festival in debt-plagued Europe. Other acts that were slated to perform include Evanescence, Cypress Hill, and the Darkness. Ticketholders have been promised refunds.
Queen updated their original web post to state they are “working to see if [they] can redress the situation at some other venue,” which clearly means Lambert fans shouldn’t give up hope for now. The band’s June 30 gig in Moscow with Lambert is evidently still a go. Meanwhile, the Roger Taylor-curated Queen tribute tour, the Queen Extravaganza, just announced its North American dates.
