According to reports, Australia’s largest music festival, Splendour in the Grass has been cancelled. The event, which was due to feature headliners Kylie Minogue, Arcade Fire and Future, was due to take place in North Byron Parkland come July. The event will now not go ahead.
Splendour in the Grass was due to celebrate its 22nd Birthday this year, at an event that sees tens of thousands of attendees annually. The cancellation is the latest in a string of troubles for the festival, which did not sell out in 2023 after a muddy event in 2022 that saw the first day cancelled and attendees left waiting for buses for hours.
Official cancellation has not yet been confirmed by event organisers but is being reported by the ABC via Triple J. Tickets went on sale last week and typically sell out in a matter of hours, but are at the time of writing seemingly still available for purchase despite the reported cancellation.
It’s a dark day for live music in Australia. Pitch was recently cancelled midway through the festival due to hot weather, Groovin’ the Moo was also cancelled weeks after the announcement due to poor ticket sales and Falls Festival has struggled to rebound post-COVID taking a year out last year. Many have blamed the cost of living and disappointing lineups as factors for skipping festivals.
More to come…
UPDATE: Splendour in the Grass organisers have released a statement confirming the cancellation of the event. The post on Instagram blames the cancellation on “unexpected events” elaborating no further, but acknowledges they “will be working hard to be back in future years.”
Those that had already bought tickets will be refunded via Moshtix automatically.
The full statement reads:
“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.”
The post goes on to quote Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco, Co-CEOs of Secret Sounds, the event’s organisers:
“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.”