‘I don’t need to go to a three day camping festival’: The generational shift hurting live music
A generational shift in live music appetites is attributing to the current crisis festivals are experiencing in Australia, according to a key industry figure.
Appearing on a new episode of Mumbrella’s one-on-one podcast, Ministry of Sound Australia CEO Tim McGee said the local live event scene is in a “pretty dire place”, on the back of cancellations of major events like Splendour in the Grass, Spilt Milk and Groovin the Moo.
Some of that can be attributed to the damage the COVID pandemic put on the scene, but according to McGee, some of that relates to the key festival demographics in 2024, especially with dance crowds.
“There is definitely a phenomenon going on where a large portion of the crowd are not interested in being fed 40 things at once,” he told host Neil Griffiths.
“They’re going to want something and they’re going to get what they’re really interested in. So it’s kind of the Taylor Swift effect where somebody like that can come through and do all the tickets and break all the records. Because people are like, ‘I love Taylor Swift. That’s my thing.'”
Splendour in the Grass 2023. Image by Charlie Hardy
McGee – who is gearing up for Ministry of Sound’s Testament tour around Australia starting later this month – said that has been seen locally too on the back of recent headline tours from Aussie artists such as FISHER and RUFUS DU SOL, while Dom Dolla is also set to embark on a sold out tour later in the year.
“People are like, ‘I’m all about that, but I don’t need to go to a three day camping festival to experience that… I want two hours of just living that, and then I can go home.'”
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.
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