The Fall of Festivals
Australian Festivals keep getting cancelled.
As someone who attends a great deal of them and gets a great deal of joy out of them, this is not ideal. However, the ramifications of these cancellations go beyond my own personal disappointment, it also has severe effects on everyone involved. From other attendees, the acts, the festival employees, the festival employers and to the greater economy, the ripple effects are profound. These factors have become significantly more apparent given the recent cancellation of one of Australia's more popular festivals, Splendour in the Grass, just two weeks after its line-up was dropped. There’s a large amount of varying information surfacing, but one thing is for certain, Festivals are not happening!
Why is this happening?
Money, money, money!
The most predominant reason for the plague that is hitting our beloved Australian festivals is simply the cost of living. Mitch Wilson, director of the Australian Festival Association (AFA), claims that the cancellation of Splendour was due to low ticket sales alongside soaring production expenses caused by the present status of the Australian dollar (MusicFeeds, 2024). The cost of running these events is rising, and subsequently so are ticket prices, yet the lineups and the events aren’t improving, so the sales of said tickets “aren’t where they need to be” (Grounds & Medhora, 2024)
"We're seeing costs up 30 to 40 per cent across the board, and ticket sales just aren't where they need to be to cover those costs"
Australian Festival Association (AFA) director Mitch Wilson (MusicFeeds, 2024) Grounds and Medhora (2024) highlighted feedback from Triple J listeners, who complained about the festival lineup via the text line, suggesting that this may have also significantly contributed to the poor ticket sales. Listeners further questioned the reason Splendour's organisers didn't wait longer prior to cancelling, since tickets were only put on sale a week prior. Wilson responded, claiming "the longer you leave your tickets on sale, the more costs you're going to be up for" (Grounds & Medhora, 2024). This comes as no shock as with growing ticket prices and the general cost of living, it is becoming increasingly common to hunt for second-hand tickets at lower prices as an event approaches (Whiting & Green, 2024)
“The cost-of-living crisis, the wages and housing crises are hitting young people the hardest, and they are being much more careful with their spending habits.”
Dr Sam Whiting Too Big Go Home
Cost-of-living challenges may explain the decline in demand for expensive tickets, yet past tours by Blink-182, Taylor Swift, and Fred Again convey another story (Tregoning, 2024). It appears that it’s not expensive events that are deterring people but more so festivals that feature diverse, multi-genre lineups, like Falls Festival and Groovin’ the Moo (Whiting & Green, 2024). Dr. Sam Whiting, an expert in the live music industry, believes that consumers' shifting music consumption ( i.e. possessing more "curated niche" taste) is incompatible with the mixed approach adopted by larger music festivals. (Grounds & Medhora, 2024). So whilst large festivals like Splendour are struggling, genre-specific festivals and major artist tours continue to perform well (Whiting & Green, 2024). If you've secured tickets to see Hozier later this year, you can rest assured that the concert will proceed as planned, however, the same level of certainty cannot be guaranteed for less niche, festivals (Tregoning, 2024). Essentially, major performers appearing at major venues provide a sense of security.
"I think we are seeing the end of this multi-genre, multi-festival programming style, the 'there's something for everyone' approach to programming,"
Dr Sam Whiting 
Knockout (2023) and Marlo (2023) are some more niche events, that are in major stadiums in Sydney and Melbourne, both of which sold out in a matter of seconds. Back in my day
According to Foster (2024) pre-covid, music events sold out rapidly, and fans signed up for prerelease tickets to assure their spot. However, adolescents who came of age throughout COVID lost out on important festival-going years and could have moved on to various other artistic endeavours (Whiting & Green, 2024). Although this hesitancy began with the COVID outbreak, harsh weather conditions driven by climate change have intensified these concerns whilst threatening the success of outdoor summer music festivals (Whiting & Green, 2024). As someone who just attended Pitch 2024 I can see why this uncertainty is increasing. Dr. Milad Haghani (2024) stresses this after his study of news reports from 2022 and 2023. These revealed that no less than 22 Australian music festivals were cancelled or postponed on account of severe weather (Haghani, 2024). Haghani (2024) claimed that this differed greatly from the revised time between 2013 and 2019, where only ten Australian festivals were affected by such weather.
Why is this a problem?
Despite the obvious reason (i.e. Myself and alot of other people love them and think they’re awesome) this decrease in festivals is problematic. According to Whiting and Green (2024) festivals are a key site for Australian participation in the arts, with important social and economic implications. A lot of the time these big festivals are based in rural areas that greatly benefit from thousands of people showing up and supporting their community. Furthermore many people rely on festivals as their main source of income, including food vendors, local acts, sound technicians, event managers, and more.
"Thousands of people, because of today's decision to cancel Splendour in the Grass, will be out of work.”
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, Greens spokesperson for the ArtsWill festivals ever be the same?
With all the aforementioned issues still very much at large it’s hard to say if Australian Festivals will ever recover. Festival organisers will have to readdress how they are running things if we want regular festivals to return. Ideally we will see them making a more cautious note of the weather, cost, target audiences and lineups before announcing and selling tickets. Yet it’s not just up to the organisers, we need the government to act as well, with tariffs on major internation tours, government-backed insurance schemes and climate action and mitigation, if we want to see any real change (Whiting & Green, 2024). Safe to say it’s a hard time to be a festival fan.
See you at the next festival (hopefully),
Lizzie T
Sources ~
Foster, A. (2024) Why so many Australian music festival are being cancelled. Nationwide News.
Grounds, E., and Medhora, S. (2024) Splendour in the Grass is the latest festival to call it quits for 2024, sparking concern about the future of the live music industry. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-27/splendour-in-the-grass-cancelled-triple-j-hack-music-festivals/103641604
Haghani, M. (2024) Australian music festivals are increasingly affected by climate change. But is the industry doing enough to mitigate its impact?. UNSW. https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2024/03/Australian-music-festivals-increasingly-affected-climate-change-industry-doing-enough
Music Feeds (2024) Here’s Why Splendour In The Grass 2024 Was Cancelled. Evolve Media (Australia). https://musicfeeds.com.au/news/heres-why-splendour-in-the-grass-2024-was-cancelled/
Tregoning, J. (2024) First Groovin the Moo, now Splendour: why are Australia’s music festivals falling over?. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/mar/30/first-groovin-the-moo-now-splendour-why-are-australias-music-festivals-falling-over
Whiting, S., an Green, B. (2024) Why are so many Australian music festivals being cancelled?. The Conversation.
https://theconversation.com/why-are-so-many-australian-music-festivals-being-cancelled-223559