Recently, the unfortunate news that no punter in Perth and Adelaide wants to hear is that Laneway has dropped our dates. The last festival, people found comfort and security due to how consistent they have been in our quiet cities, has suddenly dropped the ball big time. Spilt Milk recently released their lineup to an overwhelmingly negative reception, which has seems to have affected ticket sales; each city is still on 2nd release. It seems more likely than not that, in the coming months, it will join the growing graveyard of festivals.
In Laneway’s official statement, they don’t provide a clear reason for this pause. The lack of honesty on their part has only left negative comments, broken deep trust, and nothing can be done to repair it. They claim this will help give artists more freedom to do headline shows beyond the festival. Will Perth and Adelaide get any? In my opinion, probably not, and they are putting salt on the wound with that excuse.
I am quite young in the scheme of things, 22 to be exact, and as I look back on what our festival circuit was like before my time, I think of “what could have been.” Big Day Out just seemed mental; my older co-workers talk about it like a long-dead relative, only pointing out the good stuff. In the age of social media, it’s hard not to compare what our country gets with what our closest relatives, the US and Europe, get. This creates an unreal expectation of what we can currently get in our economy. History is repeating itself; first it was Big Day Out, and Laneway could be next.
Now it’s the default to be pessimistic about our live music scene. Can we recover and thrive… or is our country just that undesirable to host events in? I can’t think of a solution other than just selling more tickets. Still, it’s all spread thin when there are only 3 major cities that consistently sell tickets, 2 that don’t, and logistics costs are outpacing any profit. We can’t always have what we want.
Daniel 
Clare Russell 
Jez Murdock