Another One Bites The Dust as organisers today announced that Sonisphere 2012 rock festival at Knebworth will not be taking place.

UK rock gods Queen were due to headline the event with American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert on lead vocals. Bearing in mind that the top selling album of all time in the UK is still Queen's Greatest Hits, that was a potentially awesome headlining gig. Add Kiss into the mix as Saturday night headliners and you had a great event.

Sonisphere was launched in the UK in 2009, has always been well-attended and this was to be the fourth annual event. The statement from the organisers mentions 'challenging times' but doesn't elaborate on whether they mean a general financial downturn or because of a clash with the Olympics. I fear the former. It seems to have taken us all by surprise. When I bumped into Brian May a few weeks ago he was talking about needing to rehearse hard for Sonisphere, so I don't think he had an inkling that anything was amiss.

Last year I, along with many hundreds of thousands of ardent music fans, attended the following UK festivals: Glastonbury, Download, High Voltage and Sonisphere. They were all well attended, featured great rock acts, and in the case of Glastonbury even world-class pop artists too. This year only one of those festivals is still slated to go ahead, namely Download featuring Black Sabbath.....even if its not the 'orginal band line-up' as announced in November 2011.

Something has gone drastically wrong with the UK rock festival market this year. The Granddaddy of them all, Glastonbury is not being presented and the official statement is that dairy farm on which it is held needs to recover and is going to fallow. That is a regular thing, so there was no surprise there. Organisers of High Voltage, which celebrated its second annual event last year, says it is off due to the venue - Victoria Park - being utilised for London Olympics non-sporting events. Perhaps. And now Sonisphere has just disappeared from the calendar due to unclear reasons.

Although Glastonbury, which always sells out before the artists are even announced, will doubtless return in 2013 it will be difficult if not impossible for High Voltage and Sonisphere to recover. Sad, very sad.

I'm interested to know, have any festivals disappeared from the Canadian menu this year? Are you planning on attending any?