Tokyo Rocks 2013 Festival Cancelled

The 2013 edition of Tokyo Rocks, a festival Blur was to have headlined, has been cancelled, event organizers announced Sunday (March 31). The gathering, which would have taken place at Ajinomoto Stadium on the outskirts of Tokyo on May 11-12, featured a bill that also included My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, Carl Barat and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. 

Organizers cited "several factors" for the cancellation, but no specific reasons have been given. Refund information is available at the Tokyo Rocks official website, though ticket holders that don't speak Japanese may need an interpreter, as there's no English translation.

Among those likely bummed out by news of the Tokyo Rocks cancellation is MBV's Kevin Shields, who had professed his excitement for playing the fest.

"Tokyo Rocks is going to be interesting because it’s going to be in a new venue," he told NME. "Primal Scream played it last year and Debbie [Googe, MBV bassist] played with them, she said it was good so we were like ‘Cool, we’ll do it’. It’s in some baseball stadium, it’ll be the biggest semi-enclosed gig we’ve ever done."

Well, it would have been the biggest semi-enclosed gig they've ever done. But despite the cancellation, Japan has two more big indie-centric festivals on the horizon: the Fuji Rock festival and the Summer Sonic festival, both which are slated to take place in 2013.