Empire Of The Sun, Grinspoon and the Butterfly Effect have apologised to their fans for failing to appear at the Pyramid Rock Festival on New Year’s Eve. Severe electrical storms on the night meant that the last four acts who were set to appear on the main stage were unable to perform. The Philip Island, Victoria festival came to a halt around 8pm on Thursday 31 December, just as revellers were gearing up to bring in the New Year.

In a statement released from Empire Of The Sun, their management assured fans that the band were ready to play and in fact stayed on site until 2am in case conditions improved, or they could perform on a smaller stage. In the end both of these options were ruled out by event organisers. “We just couldn’t compete with Mother Nature,” admitted Empire frontman Luke Steele. “We’d like to extend our sincerest apologies to all the fans who waited. Our thoughts are with everyone who was caught in the storm.”

Pyramid Rock organisers have chided critics of the festival, pointing out there was nothing they could do about the weather.