The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Operational decision · 2024–2025
Splendour in the Grass cancelled 2024 fifteen days after its lineup
Australia's flagship festival announced Kylie and Arcade Fire on 12 March 2024; on 27 March it cancelled outright, with tickets barely on sale.
Splendour in the Grass · Secret Sounds · 2024-03
What happened
Splendour in the Grass, run by Live Nation's Secret Sounds, had been Australia's rites-of-passage festival since 2001 at North Byron Parklands, with a traditional capacity of 50,000. The 2023 edition undersold, and the 18–25 audience it relied on was buying fewer tickets than before the pandemic.
The 2024 lineup — Kylie Minogue and Future exclusives, Arcade Fire, Turnstile, Fontaines D.C. — was announced on 12 March 2024. Fifteen days later, on 27 March, with tickets barely on sale, the festival cancelled outright, citing 'unexpected events'. Industry figures said costs had risen 30–40 percent across the board while sales lagged; it was the sixth major Australian festival cancellation of 2024, weeks after the NSW government had granted it A$100,000.
Refunds were offered, and organisers promised to return 'when the time is right' — but the 2025 edition was cancelled too, in January 2025, framed as a breather. A festival that had run for more than two decades went dark two years in a row.
Why it happened
- The cost base rose while the core audience stopped buying: costs up 30–40%, 18–25 demand below pre-pandemic levels.
- Fifteen days of sales settled it: the cancellation came before the festival had any chance to market its way out.
- The wave fed itself: with Groovin the Moo and others already gone, cautious fans held back harder.
The lesson
Splendour announced a headliner lineup and cancelled fifteen days later: when a festival's core audience stops buying early, no lineup closes the gap in two weeks.
Aftermath
Secret Sounds said the festival would return when the time is right. The two straight cancellations made Splendour the emblem of Australia's 2024 festival contraction.
Sources
- ABC News, 23 January 2025 — Splendour In The Grass confirms it won't return for 2025 (2024 edition cancelled in March 2024, two weeks after lineup announcement; organiser cited 'unexpected events'; AFA's Mitch Wilson: costs up 30–40% across the board, ticket sales insufficient; Creative Australia: only 56% of festivals profitable 2022–23; other 2024 cancellations incl. Groovin the Moo, Caloundra, Harvest Rock; festival running since 2001 at North Byron Parklands; 2025 cancelled 23 January 2025 as a 'breather')
- Pollstar, 27 March 2024 — Shock Waves As Australia's Splendour In The Grass Cancels (cancelled 27 March 2024; scheduled 19–21 July at North Byron Parklands; lineup announced 12 March with Kylie Minogue and Future exclusives, Arcade Fire, Turnstile, Fontaines D.C.; undersold in 2023; 18–25 demand down; sixth major Australian festival cancellation of 2024; traditional capacity 50,000; NSW granted A$100,000 in January 2024; festivals generated A$234M in 2022)
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