Longtime Bluesfest Byron Bay organizer Peter Noble. Photo Credit: Dane Beesley
Music festival cancellations are piling up, but contrary to prior headlines, Australia’s Bluesfest Byron Bay might not be getting shelved after all.
That development just recently emerged during an interview with Peter Noble, the event’s longtime organizer. Scheduled to kick off on April 17th, Bluesfest had previously been expected to wrap a 35-year run with its 2025 edition, according to comments from Noble.
While the move prompted a steady stream of social media feedback from fans, it didn’t exactly come as a surprise. As tracked by DMN Pro – which has also broken down the possible reasons behind the trend – over 170 festivals and counting have been canceled or delayed during 2024.
Despite the far-from-ideal point and the lengthening cancellation list, Bluesfest, now spanning four days instead of the usual five, appears poised to return in 2026. In more words, Noble during an IQ sit down described the initial cancellation announcement as a publicity-minded response to the Australian government’s alleged decision not to invest in Bluesfest.
This decision, the multi-decade industry vet elaborated, arrived amid continued government investments in internationally owned happenings like SXSW. (Reports earlier in 2024 highlighted substantial subsidies for several Live Nation shows Down Under as well.)
“So what do we have to do?” Noble vented in part. “Do we have to say it’s the last Bluesfest to get people to focus on us? Are we the long-suffering wife and South by Southwest is the mistress who gets the diamond rings?”
As laid out by the festival director, the maneuver is paying off; related discussions with the government resumed in the wake of the public pushback against the cancellation. Meanwhile, Bluesfest is shaping up to be “our most successful festival yet,” Noble relayed, with approximately 90,000 passes moved thus far.
Bluesfest 2025 tickets (priced at the pre-fee and -tax equivalent of $350 for four-day access and $134 for single-day entry) were still available at the time of writing, but the sales have helped set the stage for a 2026 installment, per Noble. To be sure, Bluesfest is said to already be exploring a variety of booking options for 2026.
Though positive, the festival’s continued run is coinciding with the initially mentioned wave of cancellations and postponements – including a number of events in Australia, population 27 million.
Among those festivals are Splendour in the Grass, Vintage Vibes, and You & Me, to name a few. Heading into the new year, it’ll be worth monitoring the mixed festivals bag in Australia and globally. Of course, cost and organizational hurdles remain when it comes to staging sizable tours and particularly festivals.
However, in spite of multiple high-profile cancellations during 2024, fans are still dropping considerable sums to see certain acts perform live. Recent weeks have delivered tour announcements and expansions from Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Gracie Abrams, Toto, Pearl Jam, and Keith Urban, among others.