BASTIONS have canceled several European dates due to border-crossing problems. Read the official statement below.
We want to make this very, very clear – we are bitterly disappointed over the cancellations in Jena, Wien, Zagreb, Novi Sad, Larissa, Athens, Sofia, Budapest, Graz, Berlin, Kiel, Lund and Orebro. We know how much we have let down our fans in these cities – it was incredibly humbling to see so much support for us build over the previous months in places thousands of miles from home. We are absolutely heartbroken to let everyone down.
We feel it only right to give you all a full explanation of events and why we came to the decision that we did.
To enter the countries of Croatia and Serbia, we required documentation from their home offices to allow us permission to come into their countries to perform. We were not aware of this fact until 10 days before the tour, where were informed by the booking agents that this ‘would be sorted’. The day before the tour, we found out that Serbia was especially strict when it comes to people coming into their country to work. This raised a red flag as we had lost our Macedonia date because the relevant documents would not be made available to us. After seeking advice from other bands and persons with more European experience than us, we were told that it was nearly unheard of for a UK band to be allowed entry into Serbia. Naturally we were concerned.
On a daily basis, both ourselves and No Omega were in constant contact with the relevant agents in order to obtain these papers.
Due to the sheer distance to these dates, we were understandably nervous about not obtaining these papers – as we needed them in our hands at the border. A denied entry into Serbia would mean we would be unable to travel to the Greek and Bulgarian dates, which would mean being stranded for 5 days before our Budapest date. This was an unacceptable outcome for both bands. So with all these facts to hand, and with geography and financing the long journey up to Stockholm in our mind – the decision was made to cut the tour short to the 18th.
We want to make it very clear. We fully intend to come back to these cities and countries. We’re only postponing our plans to play in these places. If we could control this outcome, we would be gunning it down to the south of Europe to play harder than we have ever played before, but sadly – this was a tour plagued by bad luck. (For details about how unlucky this tour has been, see post tour diary in a couple of weeks)
We want to thank everyone who has supported us during the build up to this tour. We extend our sincerest and deepest apologies to the promoters who worked so hard setting up these dates for us and also to our fans, who we can assure that we are more disappointed than they are about losing these shows. We also want to thank No Omega, for being absolutely righteous dudes.
We will make this up to all of you.
BASTIONS live:
