Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond are coming – but the show won't be called Top Gear and it will be indoors in Sydney and Melbourne.
The Top Gear Live Festival will go ahead in Australia and Jeremy Clarkson is coming, even though he has been sacked by the BBC from the hit TV show.
BBC Worldwide has agreed that the show can go on but without BBC or Top Gear branding.
A statement from BBC Worldwide said the shows would go ahead "so as not to disappoint the thousands of people around the world who have already purchased tickets. These events will not however feature any BBC Top Gear branding or content. We believe this is a sensible approach in the circumstances".
However, the dates have been moved from April to July and the event is now being held indoors rather than at a race track.
Two Melbourne shows have been added to the calendar but the change in dates is likely to leave interstate show-goers out of pocket when they rebook flights and accommodation.
"A decision has been made to reschedule the festival planned for Sydney in April until July of this year and will instead become an indoor arena show staged in both Melbourne on 18-19 July and Sydney on 25 -26 July," the BBC statement said.
It will be the first time all three presenters — Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May — will make the trek Down Under for the performance; the previous Australian Top Gear Live shows only had two of the three presenters, but always with Clarkson as the main host.
The BBC statement said: "We'd like to thank our ticket holders for their continued patience. The fans are the most important people to Jeremy, Richard and James so we're delighted to be able to say 'we're still coming'."
News Corp Australia understands organisers stood to lose millions of dollars — and thousands of fans would have been entitled to refunds — if the show did not go ahead as planned.
A statement from Brand Events said ticket-holders will be able to exchange their old tickets for new ones after April 10.
"The new event...will be an arena format starring Jeremy, Richard and James - simply titled ‘Clarkson, Hammond and May Live', and they'll be staged in both Sydney and Melbourne," said a bulletin from Brand Events.
Organisers say they are making “appropriate provisions” to ensure the BBC is not brought into "disrepute" by the presenters during the live shows.
News Corp Australia understands any content directly related to or inspired by Top Gear TV will not be part of the live events, which means The Stig, clips from the TV show and the theme music cannot be used.
Meanwhile, the BBC says the TV show’s future “is not in doubt”.
“We have committed to its renewal and return in good shape in 2016,” said a BBC statement.
Organisers said cancellation of the live show “was always an option” but they didn’t want to disappoint more than 100,000 fans who’d bought tickets.
The consortium insists forging ahead with the show was not a money-grabbing exercise, claiming the priority is to “simply cover costs”.
Exisiting ticket holders will have the choice of swapping for tickets to the new shows, or they will be refunded.
Prices and details for the new shows will be available after April 10.
Organisers said new tickets would only be released after existing ticket holders had an opportunity to swap their entry passes to the new shows.
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