Big Day out 2013 skirts New Zealand

Music festival promoter Ken West has announced the line up for The Big Day Out 2013 with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Killers and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs headlining in five cities across Australia in January and February.
Next year will be the first with no Auckland leg, after low ticket sales for this year's festival led to its cancellation.
In an interview with fasterlouder.com.au, West has suggested the Big Day Out, which was hosted in Auckland for 18 years, was too expensive to take to New Zealand and "should never have happened."
West stated "if you translate the AUS$165 ticket all inclusive, which is what we are doing, to New Zealand (dollars), which is only 80% to the dollar plus GST, that is like NZ$220 (per ticket).
"And ... nobody in New Zealand wants to pay $220, they only want to pay about $130.
So thus therein lies my problem. And that needs a solution before we can say, 'we will go back there' ... it is a very hard job, so we have to get around that problem."
West said he had thought about hosting a mini-Big Day Out in New Zealand next year featuring around six bands, but decided this year's festival should be "fully focused on Australia - working out what is right for the event".
A Red Hot Chili Peppers sideshow has already been announced for 14th January in Auckland.
The Big Day Out ran in New Zealand from 1994 till 2012, and featured some of the biggest names in music, including Metallica, the Beastie Boys and Rage Against the Machine.
The line up for the Australian Big Day Out 2013; which will perform in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Gold Coast; will also include The Killers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire Weekend and Sleigh Bells.

http://www.bigdayout.com/