Splendour in the Grass is the latest festival to call it quits for 2024 ...

Splendour In The Grass announced on Wednesday that the 2024 event would not go ahead due to “unexpected events”.  

In a statement on its Instagram page, the festival said it would be "taking the year off", and that ticket holders would be refunded "automatically" by ticket retailer Moshtix. 

The co-CEOs of Splendour organiser Secret Sounds, Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco, said in a statement to media they were "heartbroken" to share the news, and added they "hope to be back in the future".

The line up, which had featured Australian music legend Kylie Minogue and vintage Canadian indie band Arcade Fire, had only been announced earlier this month. 

Splendour is the latest festival to call it quits in 2024, with regional touring event Groovin the Moo pulling the pin in February. Several smaller festivals have also been cancelled. 

Australian folk duo The Dreggs, who were due to play on Splendour’s main stage for the first time, told Hack they only learned of the cancellation minutes before the news became public. 

"We got a call from management being like, 'Boys, drop what you're doing, jump on this phone call'. And then it would have only been five minutes later [that] we saw triple j’s Instagram post,” Zane Harris from The Dreggs said. 

"It all came crashing down pretty quick."

Paddy and Zane, aka The Dreggs, were looking forward to playing the main stage at Splendour this year. (Supplied)

Bandmate Paddy Macrae said playing at festivals like Splendour was a dream for up-and-coming bands. 

"It's just so sad that the industry is suffering so much right now with all these cancellations, and it's really scary to be completely honest," Paddy told Hack. 

"For everything to get cancelled in the blink of an eye, it's terrifying."

Aussie artist Kita Alexander also found out early on Wednesday; she told triple j Hack it was heartbreaking, and that playing Splendour had been a lifetime dream.

"Literally my whole musical life, I've wanted to play Splendour in the Grass – it's our Glastonbury, it's our Coachella – and I'm literally getting goosebumps thinking how sad I am about this."

As a Byron local, she said it was a particularly hard pill to swallow.

"The community is heartbroken – I know that for a fact," she told Hack.

Splendour started in 2001, with festivals held every year since then, except for a two-year pause due to the COVID pandemic. 

The event has been compared by some to the UK’s Glastonbury, and is the largest music fixture in the Australian calendar.

It was due to be held at the North Byron Parklands near Byron Bay, in northern NSW; the 2024 event had been scheduled for July this year, and would have been the 22nd festival. 

'Ticket sales aren't where they need to be': festival association

The Australian Festival Association – of which Splendour is a member – has also released a statement, describing the cancellation as "devastating".

Managing director Mitch Wilson told Hack the cancellation decision ultimately came down to ticket sales.

"We're seeing costs up 30 to 40 per cent across the board, and ticket sales just aren't where they need to be to cover those costs," they said.

"Australian festivals are really struggling at the moment because of the strength of the Australian dollar, and travel costs are through the roof."

Some listeners on the triple j text line had complained about the festival line-up, suggesting that was a factor in the slow ticket sales, while others asked why Splendour's organisers didn't wait longer before cancelling the event, given tickets had only gone on sale last week.

"The longer you leave your tickets on sale, the more costs you're going to be up for," Mitch Wilson said in response.

"Festival promoters are usually pretty good at knowing how ticket sales are going, so if you can tell what the level of sales are at in the first couple of weeks, it's pretty indicative of where things are going to get to."

What does this mean for the future of festivals? 

Dr Sam Whiting from the University of Adelaide is an expert on the live music industry. 

He said consumers' changing music consumption habits have led to a reckoning for large festivals like Splendour. 

"I think we are seeing the end of this multi-genre, multi-festival programming style, the 'there's something for everyone' approach to programming," Dr Whiting told triple j Hack.

"I think that is wearing thin with audiences."

Dr Whiting said consumers who get their music from online sources tend to have more "curated, niche" taste that doesn’t accord with the scatter-gun approach of larger music festivals. 

The cost of tickets is also driving the demise. 

"The cost-of-living crisis, the wages and housing crises are hitting young people the hardest, and they are being much more careful with their spending habits," Dr Whiting said. 

"They're much more likely to save up and splurge on a Taylor Swift ticket, then go to a few music festivals across the year. So that level of passion is still there for music, but they're saving it for specific artists."

Calls for federal funding 

The Greens have written to federal Arts Minister Tony Burke, urging the government to include a relief package for the live music industry in the May budget. 

"Another festival biting the dust because there is not enough support from the government," Greens spokesperson for the Arts, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, told the Senate. 

She said festivals were an important part of Aussie life, as well as an important part of our economy. 

"Thousands of people because of today's decision to cancel Splendour in the Grass will be out of work.

"We need the government to step in and support the music and festival industry urgently."