Splendour In The Grass has Officially been Cancelled
What does the future hold for Australia's festival industry?
In a statement released today, the organisers of the popular music festival Splendour In The Grass, Secret Sounds, have made the move to cancel this year's festival following slow ticket sales.
Going into more detail on their website, Splendour In The Grass has put out a statement saying "With a heavy heart, we’re announcing the cancellation of Splendour in the Grass 2024, originally scheduled from Friday 19 July to Sunday 21 July in Ngarindjin / North Byron Parklands. We know there were many fans excited for this year’s line-up and all the great artists planning to join us, but due to unexpected events we’ll be taking the year off. Ticket holders will be refunded automatically by Moshtix. We thank you for your understanding and will be working hard to be back in future years."
Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco, the co-CEOs of Secret Sounds added a personal statement "We’re heartbroken to be missing a year especially after more than two decades in operation. This festival has always been a huge community effort, and we’d like to thank everyone for their support and overall faith. We hope to be back in the future."
Many Australians have turned to social media to comment on the news, giving their reasons why they have made the decision not to buy tickets for the 2024 event. Many stated artist fatigue as the number one reason preventing them from going - Australia just isn't able to draw the A-list artists that other festivals are able to and the line-up lacked length and depth. While it's always good to support local acts, many Aussies don't want to watch G-Flip, Hilltop Hoods, Tash Sultana, Angie McMahon and more for the nth time and argued that there needs to be international names on the line-up to hook in the numbers. Some compared the quality of the festival line-up from before the pandemic to present day and how the line-ups have gone downhill since Covid, asking where are the names like Chance The Rapper, Childish Gambino and SZA who have all played pre 2020 are.
Some social media users also cited the cost of living crisis, drinks prices and expensive ticket prices as being barriers for them, while others also had comments that they felt the music line-ups simply haven't been in tune with what young people are listening to nowadays, questioning where are the EDM artists. Especially when you consider EDM is one of the biggest genres that young Aussies are listening to at the moment.
With this in mind, is it fair to say that there is no longer an appetite for live music in Australia?
Absolutely not. Aussies have shown time and time again that they will turn up and turn out for their favourite artists. Look at the hype that Taylor Swift brought to the country earlier this year, and more recently UK DJ Fred Again was able to sell-out several shows across the country with only a day's notice and crowd favourite Pink continues to sell out her live shows here. Festival producers need to be tapped into the trends of what music listeners are enjoying and respond directly with the artists they secure, keep prices as fair as they can be and should expect a reduction in profits in order to deliver a great music experience that doesn't break banks, and more importantly secure the long-term survival of music festivals as a must-book in Aussies' social calenders.
If you purchased a Splendour In The Grass ticket you don’t need to do anything – your ticket(s) will be automatically refunded back to your credit card/PayPal account and Moshtix will let you know when this has been done. Refunds will be processed within the next 5-10 business days.
