Featured Image Credit: Bluesfest
Australia’s long-running Bluesfest is to close after its 2025 edition in another blow to the nation’s music festival scene.
Bluesfest’s demise has been announced soon after the cancellation of this year’s Splendour in the Grass, Falls festival and Groovin the Moo.
Bluesfest, which was first staged in 1990, welcomes around 100,000 music fans annually to its 300-acre Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm home, around 11km north of Byron Bay. Bob Dylan, Kendrick Lamar and Paul Simon are among those that have played Bluesfest over the last 35 years.
Matters such as rising travel costs, overheads and a tightening of consumer spending are among the reasons given for the sector’s challenges.
“To my dear Bluesfest family, and after more than 50 years in the music business, Bluesfest has been a labour of love, a celebration of music, community, and the resilient spirit of our fans,” Bluesfest director Peter Noble said in a statement.
“But after the 2025 festival, as much as it pains me to say this, it’s time to close this chapter.”
Bluesfest tickets are available via Moshtix, with the 2025 event’s headliners to be announced soon.
Splendour’s 2024 cancellation
In March 2024, Splendour In The Grass festival was cancelled just two weeks after announcing its 2024 line-up. The three-day festival was scheduled to take place in July in Ngarindjin/North Byron Parklands. Organisers indicated that the festival could return in future years.
“We hope to be back in the future,” said a joint statement for Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco, co-chief executives of Secret Sounds.
The cancellation came after January’s news of Splendour In The Grass – which is operated by Live Nation-backed Secret Sounds – being awarded a grant of A$100,000 (£52,000/€60,000/$65,000) by the Australian Government’s Live Music Australia Programme.
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