NSW Minister Responds To Splendour In The Grass 2024 Cancellation

John Graham – the NSW Government’s Special Minister of State, Minister for Roads, Minister for Arts, Minister for Music and the Night-Time Economy, and Minister for Jobs and Tourism – has responded to the news that Splendour In The Grass has been cancelled for 2024.

Following a swathe of social media rumours and leaked reports, Secret Sounds confirmed the cancellation just after 4pm today (March 27), writing in a post shared on social media: “We know there were many fans excited for this year’s line-up and all the great artists planning to join us, but due to unexpected events, we’ll be taking the year off... We thank you for your understanding and will be working hard to be back in future years.”

In a formal statement of his own, Graham said the cancellation comes as “devastating news”. He continued: “The festival industry is under extreme pressure, and I am deeply worried about the health of the festival scene here in NSW. The NSW Government offered financial support to help the event proceed this year. We will continue to work with them and hope to see them return next year.”

Splendour was indeed among the events that received an injection of Government funding back in January of this year; according to documents published by Live Music Australia, the festival received a grant of $100,000 to aide in hosting its 2024 edition.

This year’s Splendour In The Grass was announced on March 12 with headliners including Kylie Minogue, Future and Arcade Fire; the former two were set to perform exclusively at Splendour, as were Turnstile, Fontaines D.C. and DJ Seinfeld. Also billed high on the line-up were the likes of G Flip, Yeat, Hayden James, Girl In Red and Baby Gravy (the collaborative project of Yung Gravy and bbno$).

The festival would’ve taken place at its regular home of the North Byron Parklands, and run over the weekend of Friday July 19 to Sunday 21. Its cancellation comes after a rough few years for Splendour, following a disastrous edition in 2022 and an epic, but undersold run in 2023.

Splendour is not the first festival to meet such a fate: other events cancelled thus far in 2024 include Splendour’s biggest direct competitor, Groovin The Moo, as well as Coastal Jam, Tent Pole, Now & Again, Wanderer and Fairbridge. The upcoming Pandemonium Rocks festival has also been hit with reports of an impending cancellation, however promotors of that event have staunchly denied them.