I don't know if it was said yet, but I just read it at MDF.

SUCKS!!!!

did they state a reason?

there's a forum link, but I don't have an account

NOOOO!!!!

from the MDF site:

The rumours going around about Cynic cancelling their appearance at Maryland Deathfest are true. As the organisers of the event, we will state everything that happened as accurately and as truthfully as possibly. All of the necessary steps to confirm Cynic through their agency were taken by us and they were confirmed on November 21, 2006 as the band agreed on our original offer. We were given a definite green light to announce Cynic on the MDF website also in November and all parties involved have known about the scheduled appearance of Cynic at the festival for 4 months. Between December and March there were numerous attemps from our side to contact both the band directly as well as their agency, but each attempt resulted in absolutely no reply or further information given to us. Part of the agreement was that we would pay for the band's flights in advance, but we never even received a reply about it each time we tried contacting the band to arrange the flights. Finally we received a sign of life from Cynic's agency in March asking for us to complete some information fact sheet to help assist them in completing the contract accurately. Shortly after rumours started going around that the band will not be playing the festival as we were not the first people to be informed of such an issue. After writing both the band and agency to get some kind of explanation about what is going on, we still have not received a legit reason and the band didn't even offer a personal message to deliver to the fans who have planned to travel to the festival to see them. They simply forwarded us an e-mail from their agency that said, "unfortunately Cynic will not be playing the festival". We received a very vague answer on the phone from their agency that was simply a waste of time and the agency acted like they don't know why the band is cancelling. We don't believe that one bit, so at this point we don't even care to know the real reason that the band cancelled. We'll leave it to the fans of Cynic to formulate their own opinion about the matter. An agreement was made by all parties 4 months ago, the green light was given to announce the band, but they suddenly cancel 2 months before the festival without a legit explanation. The lack of communication by both the band and agency is extremely frustrating for us and not how we prefer to deal with any band that performs at MDF. We aren't magicians or psychics and can only report the facts about what happened from our side. We understand that some people will be extremely frustrated by this news and you can believe us that we are just as frustrated as anyone. If you want to express your displeasure regarding this issue, please direct it to the band and not us as this has nothing to do with how we handled everything.

As a result of the cancellation, one additional band will be confirmed in the near future. It will not be a band of headlining status and we anticipate pushing up Zyklon one space to headline the second night. Stay tuned for more on that.

In addition, you might've already heard the news regarding Looking for an Answer cancelling their appearance at MDF approximately 1 month ago. GHOUL (Creepsylvania) has been announced to replace them on the bill.

Finally, the bands confirmed for the MDF pre-fest are as follows: PIG DESTROYER, INSECT WARFARE, PUTRID PILE, PISSCHRIST and DEFEATIST. One more band will be confirmed for the pre-fest. The show will take place on Friday, May 25th at Sonar and further information regarding start time and ticket price will be revealed shortly

they gave their reason on blabbermouth and their own website i believe

no aaron...blabbermouth posted the same as above but someone added the following comment:
I know the cancellation was a disappointment to those who planned to go, me included, but Cynic had their reasons and I would hope we could understand. It's not like they cancelled a week before the show - it is still about 2 months away.

I do want to add, despite the unprofessional allegations on that site, Cynic in no way cancelled due to anything involving money and they did contact the venue before I posted the announcement. It is obvious there was miscommunication, but it is not fair to blame it on the band.

Cynic are humble and thankful musicians who DO appreciate their fanbase very much. If they had been able to play the fest, they would have, this I know. I hope we can all understand at this point things happen, and try not to dwell on it too much, however disappointing the news happened to be.

Aeon Spoke, Paul and Sean's other band, has an album being released this month, and the guys are leaving for Europe tomorrow to promote it. Please understand they are insanely busy and probably had no idea people would expect or demand specific reasons why they could not play the fest and have therefore did not release a public statement. They are not ignoring their fans or trying to screw anyone over despite what the deathfest site is claiming. Please remember these guys have a lot of other things going on along with Cynic, and let's just try to be happy they hopefully will be playing some US dates soon.
http://cynicalsphere.proboards26.com/index...al&action=display&thread=1174335007

i knew it was too good to be true

DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i'll still be there and still very excited. not gonna be losing too much sleep over this turn of events.

Pretty much any band I want to see at this I am seeing elsewhere, often for much cheaper. Saving on gas money is rad.