Who's Going To Play At Splendour In The Grass 2024?

With Splendour In The Grass dropping its line-up for this year’s festival next week, we can’t help wondering who’s going to appear at the 2024 event.

In case you missed it, tour promoters Secret Sounds shared the following announcement last night: the line-up is dropping next Wednesday, 13 March, at 8 am AEDT, with the festival going ahead from 19-21 July 2024.

The tour promoters didn’t reveal any names that would appear on this year’s line-up, but that hasn’t stopped names being thrown around.

Looking at artists’ touring schedules, new albums, previous festival cancellations, and acts who are perfect for Splendour but haven’t toured Australia in a long time, here’s what we’ve come up with:

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Lana Del Rey

Would Lana Del Rey be too expensive to headline Splendour In The Grass? Possibly. Is there any hope? Yes – the Video Games singer has an open schedule from early June to late August.

Del Rey, headlining Coachella this year, hasn’t appeared at Splendour since 2012, and hasn’t toured Australia since 2018. And after the last couple of years, in which her star has grown considerably thanks to releasing some all-time classic albums, it would be a real treat to see her down under.

Kylie Minogue

Okay, hear us out: if Glastonbury has a legends slot, why not Splendour? Who’s a bigger Australian music legend – experiencing present-day success, winning Grammy Awards, too – than Kylie Minogue?

Let’s be honest, Kylie Minogue would be awesome at Splendour, with songs we all know – Can’t Get You Out Of My Head, Spinning Around, Padam Padam – and she’s never performed at the festival before. While she’s busy with her Las Vegas residency, her only July date is at BST Hyde Park festival (on the 13th). So, there’s space in her schedule, and who wouldn’t want to sing her classics?

The Kid LAROI

Australian pop/R&B sensation The Kid LAROI recently announced the postponement of his highly anticipated homecoming tour, but could he somewhat fill the void until the new dates this October by performing at Splendour In The Grass?

The Kid LAROI announced the postponement of his tour and stated that it was “logistically impossible” to pull off the shows, though he promised that the wait “will be worth it”.

“We tried to make February work, but it’s proving to be logistically impossible,” he said on Instagram Stories. “I’m sorry to make you all wait a bit longer, but we will need to move the tour to October. We’re working on the details, including some new additions to the line-up and will let you know ASAP.”

With his hits that everybody knows and loves and awaited dates following his Australian tour from two years ago, he’d be a great get for Splendour. In a glowing review of The Kid LAROI’s album The First Time for The Music, Claire Dunton wrote that LAROI “feels and sounds like a real, honest talent that you can’t help but back as an Australian”, and “has perfectly executed the ever-popular ‘90s aesthetic”.

No Doubt

The alternative rock loving music community went into shock when it was announced that No Doubt would reform for the first time in nine years at Coachella. Could they also make it to Australia?

It’s been a long 12 years since No Doubt toured in Australia, with the funk-meets-punk outfit last playing in venues across the country in August 2002.

The shock reunion followed the December 2022 revelation that Gwen Stefani was open to reuniting with her No Doubt bandmates. “What are the odds of anything? I was just on The Drew Barrymore Show. She was one of my favourite celebrities when I was a little girl, and now I was just on the show with her. Anything can happen,” she said in an interview.

She added, “I have no idea what’s going to happen with No Doubt. We haven’t really talked about doing anything, but it feels like everyone is, right? All the ’90s people — Blink-182 did an eight-month tour that sold out in like five minutes.”

With Splendour’s history of locking in alternative music royalty, including Sonic Youth, PJ Harvey, The Strokes, Pixies, The Smashing Pumpkins and many more, we wouldn’t totally rule No Doubt out of Splendour.

MGMT

It’s been six years since indie favourites MGMT toured Australia (and performed at Splendour In The Grass). The last line-up they featured on starred headliners Kendrick Lamar, Lorde and Vampire Weekend.

MGMT were plugging their 2018 LP Little Dark Age last time they were here, but if they return for Splendour this July, they’ll be promoting their sixth album, Loss Of Life, which landed last month.

MGMT are favourites in Australia, with the band’s performance at Festival Hall in 2018 described as “a dreamy and delicious, trippy slice of weird” by The Music’s Madison Thomas. We’d like another slice of weird, thanks.

The Last Dinner Party

UK group The Last Dinner Party have grown immeasurably since appearing on music radars last year, and since releasing their debut album, Prelude To Ecstasy, last month, their star has gone even further, even winning a BRIT Award.

The Last Dinner Party are already triple j favourites, they’re playing at Fuji Rock Festival the weekend after Splendour, and have no other dates booked on Splendour weekend. Possibility? Yes.

Lewis Capaldi

Could Lewis Capaldi make his long-awaited return to Australia after cancelling his Splendour In The Grass and headline tour dates last year? We’re sure that his fans will be hoping for his swift return, anyway.

The Bruises singer cited a need to take “much more time getting my mental and physical health in order, so I can keep doing everything I love for a long time to come.”

Splendour In The Grass and Secret Sounds co-CEO Paul Piticco said about Capaldi’s cancellation, “We know that many of you will be disappointed but, we’re sure Lewis’ fans will agree, all that really matters is that he takes the time he needs to feel better. Lewis, we’ll all be here waiting when you’re ready!"

If he’s ready, we’re here.

King Stingray

Arnhem Land rockers King Stingray’s music was teased in Splendour’s little video announcing that the line-up will drop next week – hinting that they’ll return to the stage after their 2022 set. Maybe this time, it’ll be the Amphitheatre.

King Stingray are currently working on album #2 and experienced a breakout couple of years. Reviewing their appearance at the 2022, The Music stated, “The group is just at their start of their career, but one gets the feeling that next time they’ll be on a much bigger stage.”

Flume

While Aussie DJ Flume headlined last year’s Splendour In The Grass alongside Lizzo and Mumford & Sons, we wouldn’t necessarily put it past festival organisers to rebook such a star with an incredible live show.

In a review of his headlining appearance at Heaps Good Festival, The Music’s Michael Prebeg wrote, “Laser lights project out far and wide onto the audience, and he gets the crowd dancing uncontrollably to his signature experimental electronic dance music full of glitchy effects and industrial beats that pulsate throughout our bodies.”

Peach PRC

Peach PRC has steadily climbed up Australia’s live music and festival scene, getting on steadily larger stages as she’s promoted her EP Manic Dream Pixie.

According to her Bandsintown profile, Peach PRC has the year open after recently performing at AO Finals Festival. And with her relatable brand of joyful music, she’s become the perfect candidate for Splendour In The Grass, appealing to music listeners of all ages.

The Josh singer ended 2023 with a bang, performing at Spilt Milk Festival, at the ARIA Awards and premiering the music video for her latest single, Like A Girl Does.

Tash Sultana

Tash Sultana – who goes by they/them pronouns – hasn’t performed at Splendour In The Grass since 2017 – starring on the line-up alongside headliners The xx, Queens Of The Stone Age and LCD Soundsystem.

They’re well overdue for a return to the Amphitheatre stage, and after Harvest Rock punters saw them perform new tracks from the EP Sugar in November, another festival stage is waiting. According to their website, Sultana only has one tour date booked for 2024: 6 July at Levitate Music Festival in the US, meaning that they have enough time to return home for Splendour.

You can read The Music’s thoughts about Sultana’s last appearance at Splendour In The Grass here.

John Butler

Who doesn’t love classic John Butler Trio songs like Zebra or Better Than? Butler has an effortlessly cool voice and artistic talent – and a new album coming in 2024 (sans the Trio).

Butler, like Sultana, has just one date lined up for 2024 – SummerSalt festival at the Sandstone Point Hotel in Bribie Island this month. In addition to that, in what’s likely the longest time an artist has gone between playing at a festival, Butler last performed at Splendour in 2003 – alongside the likes of Coldplay and Placebo. Well past time for a return, hey?

Skepta

It’s baffling that British grime MC and rapper Skepta has never performed at Splendour In The Grass before. According to Songkick, he does have numerous tour dates booked for 2024, and while it’s close – he’s in Germany on 11 July – there is an opening for the essential Splendour dates.

Making Skepta’s first Splendour performance more likely is that he’s releasing a new album this year. His sixth LP (and first since 2019), Knife And Fork, is on its way. Plus, Skepta hasn’t performed in Australia since Field Day 2020 – it’s time for another visit.

Empire Of The Sun

In October, beloved Australian act Empire Of The Sun released a collaborative track with PNAU, AEIOU, signalling the former’s first new music in seven years. That release followed the group’s Luke Steele telling The Music that it was the “perfect” time for Empire Of The Sun to come back last February. Here’s what he told us:

I feel like this is the perfect time for Empire Of The Sun to come back. Post-pandemic, after everything that’s happened, there’s obviously been a very clear shift on planet Earth.

I think there’s always been tremendous love for this band. I had so many calls, emails, messages and requests from people yearning for the songs and the music. There were a lot of testimonies about what they’d been through, you know, from people getting over cancer to getting married to giving them hope during moments of deep depression. It became quite evident that we had become conduits or ambassadors and we have to honour that. This is the new era of Empire Of The Sun.

The band made their comeback last year, headlining Now & Again Festival with Gang Of Youths.

Empire Of The Sun last performed at Splendour In The Grass in 2013. At the time of writing, there are no tour dates listed on their website.

FLETCHER

American pop singer FLETCHER is touring across the globe this year, but this July, she’ll actually be in Australia, with tour dates booked in Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, and an opening between 19-21 July.

While Splendour headliners don’t perform in Brisbane when their appearances are confirmed, it’s different for other acts on the bill, meaning that FLETCHER is a possibility. Will FLETCHER make her Splendour In The Grass debut this July? We’ll have to wait a week and see.