Sticky Fingers have been removed from Bluesfest following public outcry in recent weeks and the withdrawal of major acts King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Sampa The Great over the addition of the band.
King Gizzard cancelled their appearance two weeks ago and Sampa The Great days later after the controversial band was added as a last minute addition to the line-up.
Singer Dylan Frost had racially abused indigenous singer Thelma Plum outside a hotel in Sydney in 2016 and as recently as July 2022 lost control and stormed off stage at a show in Sydney because of a faulty microphone.
Bluesfest boss Peter Noble took a forgiveness approach to Thomas’ behaviour but the general consensus was the public weren’t buying it and the Bluesfest name started to suffer.
In a statement Bluesfest announced today:
We are sad to announce that Bluesfest has decided that Sticky Fingers is to step off the Bluesfest 2023 line-up.
Bluesfest cannot, sadly, continue to support Sticky Fingers by having them play our 2023 edition, and we apologise to those artists, sponsors and any others we involved in this matter through our mistaken belief that forgiveness and redemption are the rock on which our society is built.
The narrative that they continue to deserve to be cancelled, as well as anyone who publicly supports them, is difficult to accept, wherein a portion of society and media passes eternal judgment toward those, in this case, a diagnosed mentally ill person whom we feel doesn’t deserve the continued public scrutiny he’s being given.
We thank everyone who has contacted us and advised their support in this matter, especially those suffering from a mental illness who feel they cannot have their illness supported in a manner whereby they feel included in society.Sticky Fingers has done so many good deeds that have never been reported, including building and funding recording studios and music education programs in disadvantaged regional communities.
We will now move on, put this behind us and continue to plan and present our best-ever edition of Bluesfest… proudly.
For those that wish to know more, there is a carefully researched article in The Australian in 2018 that took the trouble to examine the facts, unlike a lot of the current published material.
Bluesfest 2023 is over Easter in both Byron Bay and Melbourne.
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