Sticky Fingers

The one-dayer, which was also to feature Tyne-James Organ and Delta Riggs, announced the date change five days out from the event

“We apologise to those artists, sponsors and any others we involved in this matter through our mistaken belief that forgiveness and redemption are the rock on which our society is built,” says a statement from the festival

“Is Australia the only place in the world where a minority attempts to ban one of Australia's great bands over something that happened so many years ago?” Bluesfest director Peter Noble asked

The Byron Bay festival has become the centre of a controversy due to its booking of the band Sticky Fingers

“This cruelty and lack of compassion are foreign to my values, as is the attempt to suppress the band’s artistic expression,” Peter Noble wrote

It comes a week after the festival announced and then defended its booking of the band Sticky Fingers

Festival director Peter Noble has said Bluesfest are "happy to welcome" back "the bad boys of Australian music"

The festival returns this April with a line-up that also includes the Doobie Brothers, Elvis Costello, Counting Crows, Bonnie Raitt, Beck, Mavis Staples, Lucinda Williams and many more

Following a court case around an altercation between him and bandmate Paddy Cornwall

The bassist was handed an 18-month prison sentence, to be served in the community