In a statement shared to their Instagram this afternoon, Animal Collective have announced that they're cancelling their upcoming UK and European tour dates – including their shows at Dolan's Warehouse, Limerick (November 2); and the National Concert Hall, Dublin (November 3).

The American experimental pop band, who released their 11th studio album, Time Skiffs, earlier this year on Domino, stated that they were "absolutely gutted" to have to cancel the gigs – but they've spent the year "trying to push through a mountain of touring obstacles related to COVID and the economy."

"Three of us got bad cases of Covid," Animal Collective resumed. "We were forced to cancel shows and lost large amounts of the income that sustains us and our families. The one constant has been that we have had an incredible time playing music in front of our fans at every show. You are all amazing. We chose to push through because we love to do it. But preparing for this tour we were looking at an economic reality that simply does not work and is not sustainable. From inflation, to currency devaluation, to bloated shipping and transportation costs, and much much more, we simply could not make a budget for this tour that did not lose money even if everything went as well as it could.

"We have always been the kind of people to persevere through the difficult times and get on stage unless our health prevented it," they continued. "We are choosing not to take the risk to our mental and physical health with the economic reality of what that tour would have been. We hope you understand and that you know we would not make a choice like this lightly. We truly want nothing more than to make it out there again. Thank you so much to our team, the promoters and venues who worked so hard on this tour for us. We look forward to getting back out to play for all of you and hope you will be there with us when we do."

They concluded the statement by instructing ticket-holders to go to their point of purchase for their refund.

Last month, acclaimed singer, songwriter and producer Santigold also sparked headlines after announcing that she had to cancel her upcoming North American tour, due to the immense challenges of post-COVID touring.

"We were met with the height of inflation – gas, tour buses, hotels, and flight costs skyrocketed – many of our tried-and-true venues unavailable due to a flooded market of artists trying to book shows in the same cities, and positive test results constantly halting schedules with devastating financial consequences," she wrote on social media. "All of that on top of the already-tapped mental, spiritual, physical, and emotional resources of just having made it through the past few years. Some of us are finding ourselves simply unable to make it work."

In the wake of Animal Collective's announcement, many fellow musicians, fans and commentators have taken to social media to speak out against the ongoing challenges are causing these tour cancellations.

if bands like animal collective and santigold are cancelling tours cause they can't break even much less make profit $, think of what that means for smaller acts

— kam tambini (@TAMBIN0) October 10, 2022

watching animal collective cancel their upcoming tour (completely understandably) is terrifying 🙃

— Fears (@fears___) October 10, 2022

Touring is broken

It’s even harder for smaller artists

Something needs to change, and fast pic.twitter.com/oJaTI6fTh2

— Sean Adams (@seaninsound) October 10, 2022

The National Concert Hall have stated that all ticket holders will be refunded in the coming days.

Read Animal Collective's full statement below:

 

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