Another music festival bites the dust (2024)

The growing list of cancelled Australian music festivals has just got longer with the sad news that another one has been canned.

This time, it's the long-standing Caloundra Music Festival (CMF), which usually takes place each October on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, that has beendiscontinued.

The event has previously attracted dozens of top Aussie acts such as Missy Higgins, Empire Of The Sun, The Veronicas, Spiderbait, Powderfinger, Killing Heidi and Angus and Julia Stone.

Sunshine Coast Council has announced in its 2024-2025 budget that the 17-year-old festival would no longer be funded by the council.

This was the death knell for the event, which had already been struggling with increased costs, fewer ticket sales and general uncertainty in the music business.

CMF now joins Splendour in the Grass, Groovin the Moo, Coastal Jam, Vintage Vibes, Dark Mofo and Valleyways which have all fallen by the wayside this year due tocost of living pressures.

In April, the Caloundra festival organisers said it would take a break from its usual October slot this year, but the council pulling out means the event is gone for good.

Sunshine Coast mayor Rosanna Natoli said the decision to no longer fund the festival was a very difficult one made with a heavy heart.

'Rising costs, falling ticket sales and uncertainty in the music festival industry were felt to be too great a risk in the current climate,' Cr Natoli said.

'We recognise that music events are important for our community and Council will continue to deliver smaller events and programs.'

Festival organisers confirmed the sad news online on Tuesday.

'We know this will be a great disappointment to so many people and can only say thank you for your support throughout our CMF journey,' the post read.

'We encourage you all, wherever possible, to support other venues and festivals by purchasing tickets early so event organisers have the confidence to keep putting on music events.

'The experiences and memories we have shared over the past 17 years will live on in our hearts forever.'

The festival organisers also thanked the volunteers who have worked with it over the years, saying that included the '600 amazing people that supported CMF last year, to well over 1,000 people collectively that have supported us since our very first event in 2007'.

Fans of the festival were distraught to hear that the music had ended for CMF.

'I'm still in absolute devastation mode to hear that we are losing our festival,' wrote one.

'It's the one thing my best friend and I talk about ALL YEAR. It gets us through 12 months of the monotony and struggles.

'When it gets close we get excited and shop and plan and pretend we are going to eat better for a month leading up to it.'

In February, Groovin the Moo organisers announced that the 2024 festival had been cancelled, just two months before it was set to kick off.

Splendour in the Grass had been due to take place from July 19 to 21 at the North Byron Parklands, with Kylie Minogue headlining.

But in March, the 2024 event was cancelled just weeks after the line-up was announced, with organisers citing 'unexpected events' as the reason behind the decision.

The NYE In The Park festival also recently collapsed after it was unable to pay its debts, with the business behind the event going into liquidation.

A statement from Sunshine Coast Council shed some light on what is afflicting the live music scene in Australia, saying music fans are increasingly choosing to support major artist tours and genre-specific festival line-ups, rather than more general programs.

This was borne out by huge recent tours of Australia by artists such as Taylor Swift, Pink and Fred Again.

CMF had been named the 2023 People's Choice Award for Festival of the Year by the Queensland Music Awards.