Shannon Beven: Is Splendour in the Grass cancellation a sign of things to come with music festivals?

A golden summer filled with music festivals is something every young person should experience.

There’s nothing quite being dirty and sweaty, standing in a field under the beating sun with hundreds of other punters after you’ve queued for hours to get in, erected your tent (badly) and endured long lines for the port-a-loos, accidental sunburn, warm beers and annoyingly loud neighbours who want to keep the party going at 4am to build character.

But it seems a generation could miss out on this rite of passage as another huge music festival bites the dust. Splendour in the Grass — widely considered the highlight of the country’s touring calendar, the mud-bath fiasco of 2022 notwithstanding — announced Wednesday it was pulling the plug a mere fortnight after tickets went on sale.

Splendour is not alone. Groovin’ the Moo and Falls Festival were both recently canned; the Fairbridge Festival has been moved to Fremantle from Pinjarra, and Hobart’s annual winter feast for the senses, Dark Mofo, will not take place in 2024. Rising costs and low demand have been blamed but are we instead witnessing the slow death of the mainstream festival? Events like Coachella continue to pull a crowd in the US, and clearly, big touring shows by single artists remain in vogue; think Pink and Taylor Swift.

Music festivals provide more than just a weekend filled with joyous, albeit hazy, memories. They offer jobs, tourism boosts and a chance to interact with the arts. It would be a real shame for generations to come if they were no more. After all, everyone deserves at least one golden summer.