“For seven years we have held what many consider the best music event in Phuket – the annual Blues Rock Festival, held for the first six years at the Hilton Arcadia Resort in Karon and this year at Laguna Phuket,” Mr Andersen wrote in a round-robin email today.
“So it is with a very heavy heart I must inform you that there will not be a 2013 Phuket International Blues Rock Festival.
“We held the most successful show to date [in February] this year at Laguna Phuket, but unfortunately they cannot host it next year.
“We have searched high and low for an alternative, but have not found any other suitable venue on the island. We will get back to it mid-2013 to see what can be done for 2014.”
Debbie Dionysius, Assistant Vice President of Destination Marketing at Laguna Phuket, commented, “Unfortunately Laguna is not in a position to host the Phuket Blues Rock Festival on the dates requested by the organizer in late February 2013, due to our hotels’ high season demands and other resort commitments.
“We offered a number of alternative dates to host the Festival, but these suggestions were declined.”
Apart from Laguna hotels being heavily booked in February, one of the resorts, the former Laguna Beach Resort, is going through renovation in preparation for its rebirth as the Outrigger Laguna in the second quarter of next year.
This has resulted in the temporary loss of 254 rooms in the Laguna inventory.
Asked why he did not accept other dates offered by Laguna, Mr Andersen explained, “Any time after the end of February, it’s too hot. They suggested that the marquee could be closed and airconditioned but the acoustics would be horrible. We need it to be held in the open.
“We were also offered December this year but the weather is too unreliable in that month.”
Mr Andersen’s main problem, he explained, is not the venue itself but the accommodation close by for the musicians.
“We need someone to come up with the B1 million to pay for the rooms. The festival has been losing about B200,000 to B300,000 a time, and I can’t afford to go on underwriting the losses.”
The festival got off to a rocky start in December 2005 when the outdoor stage area at the Hilton was turned into a swamp but a violent storm the night before, but since then it has grown in strength and stature.
It has featured leading international artists such as Rich Harper from the US, John Meyer from Australia, Chris Salgado from the US and, this year, multiple Grammy winner Chris Thomas King.
It also featured many acts from Phuket and other parts of Thailand and Asia.