THE COUNT: FESTIVALS FLAILING DOWN UNDER

The cancellation last week of one of Australia’s longest-running music festivals, Splendour in the Grass, has sent shockwaves through the global live industry, with observers speculating not only about the future of festivals Down Under but the entire live market in the region.

Planned for 7/19-21 at North Byron Parklands, Splendour is the sixth major festival in Australia to be canceled in 2024. Its promoters, the Secret Sounds Group (Paul Piticco and Jessica Ducrou), are 63%-owned by Live Nation. They attributed the move only to “unexpected events” and said they “will be working hard to be back in future years.”

Insiders say that despite a bill featuring top worldwide talent such as Kylie Minogue (CAA), Future (Wasserman), Arcade Fire (CAA), Turnstile (Wasserman), girl in red (WME), The Kills (WME) and many others, ticket sales were not good, and the future of Splendour and its brethren are in serious doubt. The 2023 edition, which was headlined by Lizzo (UTA), Mumford & Sons (WME) and Lewis Capaldi (WME), was woefully undersold as well, but organizers expected this year to hit about 50,000 paid.

Those in the know point to insurance issues, policing problems, a new generation of fans not willing to spend $500+ for tickets and a significant cultural disconnect between fan and promoter as insurmountable challenges this year.

Other gatherings suffering similar fates in the market include the highly regarded traveling festival Groovin the Moo (Cattleyard Promotions), which was canceled due to poor ticket sales just two weeks after being announced. ThisThat (triple j) and Dark Mofo (Chris Twite) were also scrapped, as was Secret Sounds' The Falls Festival, a major three-day music event held annually over New Year’s Eve for the past 30 years.