Mic drop: What music festival decline says about Aussie music

What’s happening to music festivals in Australia? 

Just this week it was confirmed Groovin the Moo and Splendour in the Grass will both be cancelled for the second year in a row. They’re the latest victims in a string of festival corpses, which feels like it began in covid and never really came back to life.

*Gotta give a shoutout to Tassie’s Party in the Paddock though – they’re still going strong this weekend!

Whether you love festivals or not is irrelevant. Some people do, some people don’t, but they’re an important vehicle for Australian music to thrive. 

On the surface, the problem is clear: people can’t afford tickets to a festival. 

Inflation and rising costs means festival organisers also need to put their fees up. But people don’t have a lot of disposable income in a cost of living crisis. If you have to choose between paying for rent and groceries or for a two-day festival ticket, it’s clear where the money is going (unless you’re a uni student, then you might choose the festival).

But the issue isn’t as clear-cut as you’d think. International artists are tripping over themselves to come to Australia to perform. And we’re flocking to them. Most notably, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour last year grossed a staggering $110 million over seven concerts in Melbourne and Sydney. Artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Coldplay, The Killers, Blink-182 and Luke Combs have also had sold out shows since. 

So is the problem actually about how we view Australian music? 

The Triple J Hottest 100 only featured three Australian artists in their top 10 this year. And the ARIA Awards Top 100 albums list only featured  three Australian entries. For the entire year. 

One of the festivals actually going ahead this year, Laneway, has international sensation Charli XCX as the headliner. It’s a massive get after a huge year for Brat. So is it Charli XCX’s appeal that’s holding Laneway up? And does it mean that festivals with predominantly Aussie line-ups can’t hold up anymore? 

This is where people argue the government should come in. There’s been calls to strengthen Australia’s music content quota laws, including on streaming services like Spotify, to give greater visibility of Aussie artists. 

I don’t know if that’s the answer to the problem. Trying to force people to listen to content they don’t want to listen to isn’t going to win any brownie points. And Governments can subsidise live music, but what’s the point if people don’t actually want to go out any way? 

What’s happening to Australian music isn’t necessarily a government problem. And governments shouldn’t intervene unless it’s clear that pulling certain levers will deliver tangible results. You can’t just throw money at a dead horse and then be surprised when it never recovers and the money’s gone. 

The answer on how to fix our Australian music problem is clear as mud. Just like those gumboots you wore to a festival 10 years ago.

What is clear is that music festivals will become a thing of the past if this decline continues. And maybe that’s the real question. 

Maybe we just need to let festivals go and find new ways of embracing local talent. 

I don’t know what they are. But if you do, let me know in the comments below. To solve the problem we’ve got to start somewhere – might as well start here.