Big Day Out may fold by next year The Big Day Out may be no more after next year. The future of Australia's premier music festival, the Big Day Out, is in doubt with music industry sources saying it could fold as early as next year. The 21-year-old festival - which tours in January and February each year through Melbourne, Sydney, the Gold Coast, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland - cancelled a planned second day in Sydney because of poor ticket sales. It may also have lost control of some lucrative sideshows - the gigs that happen for individual bands at separate venues while on the Big Day Out tour. "A number of [international] artists have agreed to perform only if they get to promote their own concerts at the same time," a source closely linked to European and North American music managers and agents says. The Big Day Out company is selling its plush offices in a converted warehouse in Sydney's Surry Hills next month for an expected price of $5 million. In September, controversial music industry entrepreneur Arash "A.J." Maddah, who has joined Big Day Out, suddenly cancelled one of his own national festivals, Harvest, whose line-up included Massive Attack, Franz Ferdinand, Primus and Goldfrapp. Mr Maddah, 39, who was born in Iran, also runs the heavy rock, metal and punk festival Soundwave, which has grown from small beginnings in Perth nine years ago to become Australia's largest festival. Last February the Sydney leg attracted 73,000 people. He is also director of the Billy Hyde Stage Systems company, which hires "backline" equipment to music festivals and events. He was this year named the most powerful person in the Australian music industry by the Australian Music Industry Directory. Big Day Out co-founder Vivian Lees left the organisation in 2011. The Big Day Out is now part-owned by Texan music company C3, which also runs the US rock festival Lollapalooza, the Austin City Limits Music Festival, and yoga/music festival Wanderlust in the US, South America, Canada and Hawaii. Australian co-founder Ken West, sources said, was also no longer involved. "Ken West has left the Big Day Out building, even though he is saying he's welcomed A.J. to the circus," says an industry figure familiar with the Big Day Out hierarchy. Adam Zammit [the Big Day Out's Australian chief executive] has brought A.J. in to wangle a solution. That "big hit" - a result of low ticket sales, potentially lost sideshow income and, industry figures say, overcapitalisation on the so-called "white whale" headline bands - is tipped to be as high as $10 million. This summer's Big Day Out festivals, starting on January 17, feature Arcade Fire, Blur, Snoop Lion aka Snoop Dogg, Flume and Tame Impala. The "white whale" headliner is US grunge band Pearl Jam. The Big Day Out directed a detailed set of questions from Fairfax Media to Mr Maddah. He did not deny any of the allegations, but said in an email: "If BDO was such a basket case, why would I, the single most sensible individual in this industry, get involved? If these sources are to be believed, then we are all on deaths [sic] bed and a meteor is heading for [Mushroom Music head Michael] Gudinski's office.