Windwaker will not play Hellbound Cruise this year. Connor Robins, who runs their synths and samples on stage and their production off it, has stepped away for the rest of the year, and the band said on 12 October that they cannot do the cruise without him.
"After two years of consistent and demanding touring," the statement reads, Robins "has made the difficult decision to step away from performing for the remainder of the year to prioritise his health." Robins added that he is not going anywhere and needs a second to catch his breath.
The rest of the schedule stands. The band say they need to rebuild the touring and production setup around the gap, which is the honest version of what happens when the person who runs the backing tracks is also the person who runs the production crew.
A cruise is also the hardest date to patch. There is no local fill in, no second night, and everyone who bought a ticket bought it for a line up printed months ago. The band apologised to the people who had planned around it.