Sonisphere Festival Cancelled, No Queen/Adam Lambert

The BBC Newsbeat website reports that this year’s edition of the Sonisphere
Festival, scheduled for 6-8 July in the UK, has been cancelled.

The first reports were triggered by a statement on the official Queen website,
Queenonline.com, which read “It is with very heavy hearts and much regret that we
announce the cancellation of Sonisphere Knebworth 2012″.

The organizers of the festival, which is in its fourth year, this year, have yet to
officially confirm the news or make a statement, but they’re expected to do so later
today. The statement has also been taken down from Queenonline.com.

In addition to Queen (with American Idol’s Adam Lambert as frontman), the other
bands on the festival bill included KISS, Faith No More, Marilyn Manson, Incubus,
Evanescence, Wolfmother, Katatonia, Mastodon and Switchfoot.

Last year, Mumbai extreme metal band Demonic Resurrection were scheduled
to play at Sonisphere, but had to cancel their appearance because of a delay in
obtaining visas. This year, the band is scheduled to perform at the Bloodstock Open
Air festival, also held in the UK, in August.