Blur is out of the Big Day Out 2014 line-up. The English rock band has pulled out from all six of the venues of the travelling music festival, blaming the organisers for their "shifting goals and challenging conditions."

The four-member Grammy-nominated group was announced as one of the headline acts of the highly anticipated festival in August, but just weeks before the multi-date event kicks off on January 17, the band decided to cancel their appearance.

"Devastated to report that Blur won't be performing at BDO in 2014. It's a shock that it has come to this. Only 8 weeks to go, the band feels that with the constantly shifting goalposts and challenging conditions of the organisers, they can't let it drag on any longer and want to make this announcement, to be clear to Blur fans that they won't be there," a statement on the band's Facebook page reads.

"We've done our very best to work with the organisers and considered every option to make it happen, but they've let us down and let everyone else down too."

Their remark is a far cry from their earlier sentiment when they were first revealed to be joining the show.

Bass guitarist Alex James said that the boys - lead vocalist Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, and drummer Dave Rowntree - were excited to make their BDO debut.

"It's hugely exciting and there's something for everybody there," he told Fairfax Media. "It's a while since we've played festivals, but everything about festivals has got better... the only thing you can't guarantee is the weather."

Apparently, weather wasn't the only factor that affected their appearance.

The annual festival, which cancelled was cancelled in 2013, saw a massive lost in its New Zealand venue in 2012. Australian promoter Ken West revealed that they lost $1.5 million due to poor ticket sales.

Sales for the Auckland date for 2014 proved to be a lot better, though, after 10,000 tickets were sold out for the venue in just 45 minutes.

In September, the festival cancelled the second date for their Sydney show, admitting that the organisers were "a bit ambitious" when they expanded to two dates for the city instead of just one.

Pearl Jam and Arcade Fire are still headlining the shows, with Snoop Dogg (a.k.a. Snoop Lion) and Major Lazer also making appearances.

BDO 2014 will be in Auckland on January 17, in Gold Coast on January 18, Melbourne on the 24th, Sydney on the 26th, Adelaide on the 31st, and Perth on February 2.

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