The Australian Music Festival Scene

By Rory Switzer.

I’m not sure if you’ve taken notice yet, but there is a trend arising on the Australian music festival front. The big ones are dying… 2015 saw the demise of our beloved middle-aged rocker music festival, Big Day Out. Then came the canning of 2016’s largest electronic dance festival, Future, shortly followed by Soundwave (heavy metal & rock) throwing in the towel due to poor ticket sales… Event organisers, Mushroom Group, who bought in to Soundwave in 2013, said in a statement that “the day of the large scale travelling festival in its current form is unfortunately numbered”.

A photo posted by Soundwave Festival (@soundwavefest) on Feb 28, 2015 at 12:28am PST

When looking back at past headline acts of the larger Australian touring festivals you will see a pattern (besides flannel). The headliners of the 1994 Big Day Out were Soundgarden. Then in 2012 the main headliner was…. You guessed it, Soundgarden. Both festivals were at one point at the pinnacle of reflecting youth culture but seemed to have lost their mojo as of late. At the 2015 BIGSOUND music industry conference in Brisbane, one of the seminars was called ”Festivals – are they the new pub rock?’ It seems as though the last few years have seen many festivals offering much the same entertainment for a similar crowd. And then of course there is the drug debate… which is another kettle of mind expanding fish all together.

A photo posted by @bigdayout on Feb 3, 2014 at 3:30pm PST

Smaller, more boutique events such as Meredith, Laneway, Subsonic and Rainbow Serpent seem to be the ones flourishing at the moment. This may have been achieved by restricting crowd numbers and booking new up and coming artists. Other trends that seem to be prevalent in the emerging festivals is a focus on incorporating other aspects to the festival experience such as markets, art exhibitions, craft beers and local food stalls that won’t have you running to the port a loo. And even if they do, there shouldn’t be too long of a queue.

A photo posted by Subsonic Music Festival (@subsonicmusic) on Dec 18, 2015 at 5:02pm PST

So if you are one of many Australian that have written off attending music festivals due to a tired line-up and the same ol experience, try your hand at one of the little guys, I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised.