Laneway Festival Quietly Removed Kirin J Callinan From Their 2018 Line-Up
Maybe they weren't impressed by that ARIAs incident?
Earlier this week, St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival added another 15 artists to their 2018 line-up, a mix of DJs and live acts who’ll play at their Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle events. At the same time, the festival also removed one name from the bill — but you’d be forgiven for not noticing.
If you compare the two most recent Laneway posters, you’ll see that one artist — Kirin J Callinan — is conspicuously absent from the current line-up.
Here’s Laneway’s previous poster, which features Callinan:
And here’s the new poster, without his name:
Callinan was added to the Laneway bill just one day before he exposed his penis on the ARIAs red carpet, a move he was widely criticised for.
We’d wager that ARIAs moment has something to do with Kirin falling off the line-up. Over its 14 year history, Laneway has cultivated a reputation as Australia’s most progressive, forward-thinking major festival — and booking a dude who has a history of flashing his dick in public doesn’t quite gel with that brand.
But, so far at least, Laneway aren’t making any public statement about their decision to remove Kirin J Callinan from the line-up. They haven’t announced the change and haven’t replied to Junkee’s request for comment. Kirin, too, has remained quiet on social media. (In fact, he hasn’t addressed or apologised for the ARIAs incident at all.)
The ARIAs stunt wasn’t Kirin’s first bit of bad press. Back in 2013, as writer Shaad D’Souza pointed out, he copped flak after planting a man with photosensitive epilepsy in the audience of his Sugar Mountain set, with the plan to induce an epileptic seizure through the use of strobe lighting. The move prompted mass walkouts — and Kirin later admitted the whole thing was staged, a performance piece designed to create controversy.
As for who is playing at Laneway? Audiences will be able to catch sets from the likes of The War On Drugs, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Father John Misty and Mac DeMarco when the festival tour kicks off on February 2 in Adelaide.