Splendour in the Grass confirms it won't return for 2025, following 2024 cancellation

Australia's winter music festival, Splendour In the Grass, has announced that it will not return in 2025, following the cancellation of last year's festival just two weeks after the official lineup was released. This news has left many music fans disappointed.

In a statement shared on social media on Thursday afternoon, Splendour and organizers Secret Sounds said that the multi-day festival "needs a break to recharge and will not be returning this year," promising to "be back when the time is right, bigger and better." The statement mentioned that the team is using this time to prepare some new events for Australian music lovers, while the festival itself needs rest and recovery to be able to present better in the future.

In a further statement to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Secret Sounds' parent company Live Nation said that the festival team is "fully supportive of bringing Splendour in the Grass back when they feel the time is right." The statement also added, "In the meantime, we are working on exciting new projects to support artists and the industry while satisfying music lovers' needs, and we look forward to sharing more information in the coming months."

Last March, Splendour canceled its 2024 event, just two weeks after the lineup announcement, citing "unexpected events" and offering refunds to ticket holders. The originally scheduled headliners included Kylie Minogue, Future, and Arcade Fire, among other international and domestic artists. In the 2020s, the festival has only been held twice, due to the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 events because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mitch Wilson, General Manager of the Australian Festival Association, stated in an interview with triple j's Hack program last year that the 2024 cancellation was due to rising costs and insufficient ticket sales.

Wilson noted, "We are seeing a general increase in costs of 30 to 40%, and ticket sales are not sufficient to cover these costs." He also added, "Australian music festivals are currently facing difficulties due to the strength of the Australian dollar and the soaring cost of travel." Secret Sounds co-CEOs Jessica Ducrou (who has since left) and Paul Piticco stated at the time that they were "heartbroken" to cancel the 2024 festival after holding parties in the Northern Rivers region for more than two decades. In a statement, they said, "The festival has always been a huge community effort, and we want to thank everyone for their support and overall trust. We hope to be back in the future."

Splendour in the Grass has been held since 2001 and is currently located at North Byron Parklands. This news comes at a difficult time for Australian music festivals, with events including Groovin the Moo, the Caloundra Music Festival, and Harvest Rock all canceling their 2024 shows. In 2023, the New Year's tradition Falls Festival, also operated by Secret Sounds, was canceled to "rest, recover, and re-adjust" and did not return in 2024/2025. A 2024 report on the festival industry found that over a third of Australian music festivals are operating at a loss due to soaring operating costs and a decline in younger audiences. The report, from arts investment and advisory body Creative Australia, found that only 56% of festivals were profitable in 2022-23, and younger audiences are no longer the primary market for the industry.