Ken West, the founder of iconic, ground-breaking music festival the Big Day Out, died peacefully in his sleep on the morning of Thursday, April 7, reports ABC.net. He was 64.
"We bring unfortunate news that, Ken West; a father, husband, mentor and most of all a legend, has passed away peacefully in his sleep on the morning of the 7th April 2022," his family said in a statement. "Our family would appreciate respect and privacy during this difficult time. Ken was big and noisy in life, but passed quietly and peacefully."
The Big Day Out was a music juggernaut through the 1990s and 2000s, bringing the world's biggest rock and electronic acts to parks and showgrounds around Australia and New Zealand for 22 years.
"I think there was a period in time there that it was the best festival in the world, and every band I knew wanted to do it," West told Double J's Inside the Big Day Out podcast in 2019.
West organised the first Big Day Out for January 1992 at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion. It featured 21 bands, headlined by Violent Femmes, and most famously featured Nirvana at the peak of their Nevermind fame, as part of their only ever Australian tour.
For more than two decades, the world's biggest touring music festival was the must-attend event of the Australian summer.
The festival soon became a roadshow, and was soon staged across six cities every summer.
Its headliners included Neil Young, Metallica, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kanye West, Muse, Pearl Jam and The White Stripes, and its undercard was always jammed with dozens of the hottest acts on the planet at that time.
Read more at ABC.net.
