Splendour in the Grass cancelled 2024 fifteen days after its lineup

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.