Henry Wagons at the Queenscliff Music Festival. Photo by Lisa Kenny.
The announcement late last month that iconic summer festival the Big Day Out would not be returning in 2015 was hardly surprising, given the disastrously poor ticket sales for its 2014 season.
Nor is the Big Day Out’s cancellation an isolated event. All-Australian music festival Homebake was cancelled in 2013, following poor ticket sales; as was Harvest 2013. Peats Ridge, a sustainable arts and music festival held over the 2013/2014 New Year, was also cancelled; as was the 2014 hip-hop festival Come Together, which gave punters only two weeks’ notice that its Sydney event, scheduled for June this year, would not proceed ‘due to ticket sales not reaching their targets’.