The local government of Suzhou, China, announced it would hold the Suzho International Music Festival the weekend of July 16-18 back in February.
At the time, the organizers said Green Day would be one of the headliners, though music blog China Music Radar refuted that claim, saying it had contacted representatives of the American band who denied any plans to play any festivals in July.
A more definite roster was confirmed last week and Green Day is not among the artists listed.
However, Sinead O’Connor and Simple Plan are now on the list.
According to CMR’s follow-up report, the organizers “offered on a huge number of artists, most of whom accepted (the terms were pretty generous).”
Eventually, the artists who accepted the invitation were put before the Suzhou authorities who “rejected” about 90 percent of them, CMR said.
Consequently, “there were plenty of peed off Western music industry folks.”
Click here to read the China Music Radar music blog.