Live Nation cancels Splendour in the Grass festival for second successive year

Cancelled last year due to "unexpected events", organisers have advised that the Splendour in the Grass festival has been cancelled for the second year in a row.

In an announcement posted today on the festival website, the Splendour in the Grass team advise “Splendour needs a little more time to recharge and we won’t be back in 2025.
“Think of it as a breather so we can come back even bigger and better when the time is right.”

While large parts of the Australian festival scene has struggled in the years since the pandemic, media reports indicate that Live Nation, the owner of Splendour, has struggled to lock in overseas acts of sufficient calibre and relevance to headline a major Australian festival.

Last year, Splendour was cancelled “with a heavy heart” due to “unexpected events”, organisers said at the time.

Kylie Minogue, G-Flip, Future and Arcade Fire were leading the 2024 lineup, but just seven days after tickets went on sale, Live Nation cancelled the event. This followed a disappointing 2023 turnout, down 30% in tickets sales compared to its pre-Covid days.

Less than three months after last year’s cancellation announcement, one of Splendour of the Grass’ co-founders, Jessica Ducrou, departed Live Nation.

Live Nation owns some of Australia’s largest music festivals, including Splendour, Spilt Milk, the Falls festival and Harvest Rock. All four did not run last year.

Australian Festival Association Managing Director, Olly Arkins said the cancellation of Splendour two years running was indicative of the sector’s poor health.

Atkins told Guardian Australia “it was always going to be a pretty big feat to bring our largest festival back after taking a year off, and I can understand why the organisers have made that difficult decision.

“It just shows we’re not out of the difficult period for festivals yet.”

Throughout 2024 a Federal Parliamentary inquiry into the challenges facing the live music sector held a series of hearings across the country.

This followed a report into the music festival sector from Creative Australia which found more than one-third of Australian music festivals were losing money as they faced skyrocketing operational costs and dwindling younger audiences. The report found only 56% of music festivals in 2022-23 were profitable, and that young audiences were no longer the sector's primary market.​

Image: The main stage at the 2023 edition of Splendour in the Grass.