Another big Aussie music festival axed for 2024
Adelaide’s Harvest Rock festival is the latest live music event axed for 2024, dealing yet another blow to the Australian industry.
After a year that has already seen major festivals like Splendour in the Grass, Groovin the Moo, NYE in the Park, and most recently Spilt Milk be cancelled, promoters of Harvest Rock confirmed this year’s event will not go ahead.
“We’ve been working hard to make Harvest Rock III another incredible event, however we have made the difficult decision to not hold the festival in 2024,” a statement released on Friday read.
The two-day festival, produced by the Live Nation-owned Secret Sounds, last year went ahead at Adelaide’s Rymill/Murlawirrapurka and King Rodney and featured a stellar line-up that included UK heavyweight Jamiroquai and US artist Beck, as well as big-name local acts like Paul Kelly, Tash Sultana and Ocean Alley.
The move comes after Ministry of Sound Australia CEO Tim McGee – appearing on a new episode of Mumbrella’s one-on-one podcast – said the local live event scene is in a “pretty dire place”.
McGee said the cancellation of Spilt Milk just a few weeks ago is a major “concern”, given the success it had last year, and was headlined by US superstar, Post Malone.
“Their last year’s show positioned them as the biggest touring festival in the country, and to go from that and then not be able to get a show up this year, not because people aren’t interested, but because they can’t get the talent and they can’t against the costs, that’s kind of showing even if you know what you’re doing and you do it very well, it still doesn’t mean that you’re going to have a result,” he said.
“That’s really worrying.”
Listen to the full episode with McGee here.
Mumbrella has contacted promoters for further comment.
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Neil Griffiths is the Managing Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the company in October 2023.
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