Groovin the Moo cancellation signals 'feast or famine' Australian festival crisis

For nearly two decades, Groovin the Moo (GTM) has been an annual highlight for music lovers in regional Australia.

Ask anyone from Bendigo, Bunbury, Maitland, Newcastle, Townsville, Canberra or any of the towns the event has frequented, and you'll hear all about its cultural importance.

Despite being one of the nation's longest running and most beloved touring festivals, GTM has cancelled this year due to 'insufficient' ticket sales.

Besides not going ahead in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's the first time the festival, founded by Cattleyard Promotions, has been cancelled in its 19-year history.

It's a significant loss for young Australians who don't often get to see bigger acts outside of major cities, and the news came as a shock to both festival-goers and industry, coming less than a month on from the festival's line-up announce.

"Obviously we're disappointed but I think our thoughts need to be with what [Groovin the Moo] is dealing with," says Terry Karamaloudis, manager of tourism and major events at City of Greater Bendigo.

"I know the inner sanctum very well; this has not been an easy decision to make."

As with each city Groovin The Moo is hosted in, Karamaloudis says they have developed a close relationship with organisers since their first Bendigo event in 2009.

"I'd be happy to say on record they're one of the best groups we deal with in the events landscape."

The festival prides itself on investing in local communities, including working with local council, and showcasing local musical talent on its Fresh Produce stages.

Based on Tourism Research Australia data, Karamaloudis estimates that Greater Bendigo will lose "two to three million dollars" in economic benefits to local businesses, accommodation, hospitality, staging companies, and beyond.

However, he says Bendigo council's sympathies lie with the pressures that Groovin The Moo organisers are facing.

"These festivals are multi-million-dollar exercises and they do come with a lot of risk. Certainly, when you're relying on an income stream through ticket sales, there is a tipping point where you need to make the call whether you proceed or not."

GTM's cancellation came just eight days after tickets went on sale, but Karamaloudis says "the writing was on the wall."

"There obviously wasn't enough confidence to carry on so we need to respect that and turn our attention to how we support groups like this to make a full return."

Groovin The Moo isn't the first high-profile festival that's fallen victim in recent months.

Secret Sounds pulled the plug on NYE staple Falls Festival over summer to "rest, recover and recalibrate" after their winter blockbuster, Splendour In The Grass, failed to sell out in 2023 – the first time since 2011.

This That festival cancelled for the second consecutive year, citing "challenging economic conditions" and scrapping its November legs in Newcastle and Queensland, despite a bill featuring popular acts like Porter Robinson, Gang of Youths, Peking Duk, Alice Ivy, Hockey Dad, and Trophy Eyes.

January saw the collapse of Sydney Festival's Summerground, Vintage Vibes in the Adelaide Hills, Valleyways and in Victoria, Tent Pole in Geelong and Coastal Jam in Rosebud.

Cost of living and changing audience habits

"It's so disappointing to see festivals across the country struggling at the moment," says Mitch Wilson, managing director for the Australian Festival Association.

Wilson says events and tour promoters around the country are facing a "perfect storm" of challenges in the wake of the global pandemic.

The cost-of-living crisis is impacting where people spend their money and operational costs – overheads like suppliers, freight, transport, and insurance – have all skyrocketed, making a multi-city event like GTM particularly risky.

"Costs are up, so you have to actually sell more tickets because your costs have increased more than you're able to increase their ticket price by," Wilson adds.

"So, if you're not doing as well as you'd hoped or previous years, it becomes pretty difficult to break even, which is the predicament we're finding ourselves in.

On top of that, Wilson adds, audience ticket buying behaviours have "dramatically shifted" since coming out of COVID, which has severely rattled market confidence.

"People aren't buying tickets like they used to. They're not selling out a festival within hours or days of it going on sale."

Instead, audiences – and especially a younger demographic burnt by the COVID years – are holding out on committing to buying tickets and being more conservative about what they spend and where.

New research from Music Victoria shows that people under 18 are less inclined to go to a festival than older age groups were at the same age. While 52 per cent of total respondents said they attended their first festival before they turned 19, only 42 per cent of respondents aged under 19 had ever attended such an event.

The bigger picture reveals a festival landscape that mirrors the 'feast or famine' crisis that Australia's small and mid-sized music venues are experiencing, where an unprecedented influx of large-scale international touring acts has resulted in the grassroots sector being neglected.

Pop superstar Taylor Swift, for example, is in the country for much ballyhooed blockbuster stadium shows.

"There's another choice that people have to make," Karamaloudis remarks. There simply isn't enough spend in people's wallets to go around.

"I have no doubt there would be too many people going, 'Gee, Groovin The Moo or Taylor Swift? We'll go to Taylor because when will she come back again!'

"I think it's great Taylor Swift has come to Australia but there's another external pressure that has direct impact… It's quite a complex matrix."

The power of a line-up

In the current climate, the festival bill is the crucial factor that many events will live and die by. And in the case of Groovin The Moo, its target audience found it lacking.

Notable homegrown acts DMA'S, Alison Wonderland, Jet, Mallrat, King Stingray, and The Jungle Giants were billed alongside internationals The Kooks, GZA from Wu-Tang Clan, Mura Masa and TikTok favourites Armani White and Jessie Reyez.

But it wasn't enough star power, judging by the comments section in Instagram posts from both the festival and media partner triple j regarding GTM's cancellation. Each were filled with folks blaming an underwhelming bill for the crippling ticket sales:

"Maybe next year come back with a real lineup and people will think it's a real festival"

"No one cares about seeing the band they've seen 15 times at other festivals over the past 5 years.

"God awful lineup and nobody knew who was headlining so it's no massive surprise."

"Remember when you had Billie Eilish headline before Covid? Now look back at this line up. Since Covid it hasn't been the same. Admit it."

Audiences, and especially Gen Z, are disappointed by comparing Australian festival line-ups to the star-studded offerings of international events showing up in their social media feeds.

The reality is that it was probably the best line-up GTM could assemble in the current economy.

The strength (or lack thereof) of the Australian dollar is making it harder for festivals and concert promoters at large to attract bankable overseas acts. And many are now more likely to stage headline tours of their own. 

"Definitely, we're hearing that from organisers across the country," says Wilson. "It's a lot harder to get international talent to make the trip out to Australia.

"Given where the Aussie dollar is at the moment, some of the fees that are being offered just aren't enough of an enticement to make that trip … That's also impacting people's decisions and festivals' abilities to attract their audiences."

'No one is immune'

Underscoring the current 'feast or famine' environment, some festivals seem to be adapting to the current challenges to great success.

Promoters Untitled Group reported its most successful New Year's run to date, shifting over 35,000 tickets for Beyond The Valley in Victoria and another 85,000 for Wildlands in Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. But on the flip side, their Melbourne event Sun Cycle wrapped up with its final  year.

Meanwhile, summer staple Laneway Festival completed another successful multi-city trek attended by over 125,000 people. "And we attribute much of this to the festival's programming," organisers wrote in a statement to Double J.

Laneway reaches a similar youthful demographic as Groovin The Moo but in capital cities, touring in-demand overseas acts like Stormzy, Steve Lacy, and RAYE alongside homegrown favourites Angie McMahon, Dope Lemon, Teenage Dads and Skin on Skin.

"Over the last 20 years, Laneway Festival has become a trusted brand, which has taken many years of consistently strong line-ups and focus on the audience experience."

However, while fortunate to have a successful year, Laneway says "no one is immune to current pressures like rising costs, changing consumer behaviour and difficult economic conditions."

This year, they had to creatively adapt to reaching new audiences and "incentivising them to buy [tickets] earlier" while the pressure of rising costs "behind the scenes are deeply troubling."

"Ultimately, we had to have optimistic confidence in our line-up, brand, and audience, while also having contingency plans in place to ensure the financial sustainability of the festival for years to come."

Crisis support is necessary

The Australian Festival Association wants to see greater support and collaboration from federal and state governments through grant funding.

"There hasn't been a commitment to fund Live Music Australia grants beyond the current financial year," Wilson said.

"We're calling for the federal government to extend those [in] the upcoming Federal Budget but also increase the amount of funding available to individual festivals.

"There's money allocated to contemporary music, but we haven't seen that flow through to specific music festival funding programs, which we need to see to provide that confidence for organisers to push through and not cancel."

State governments have shown a "renewed appreciation" for contemporary music, as seen in the Victorian Government pledging around $20 million towards its state-wide Always Live music program. Meanwhile, the New South Wales government continues to financially support Great Southern Nights, which presented 300 gigs in its 2024 program.

"We need support for our existing, most loved, well-established festivals. And I think that's where the support is lacking at the moment.

"Rather than creating new brands and programs housed within government they should really be supporting those festivals that have built their communities and events up over, in some cases, decades."

"From an industry perspective, what we're calling for is for government and industry to come together and work together to get through this challenging period.

"We're calling on people to support their favourite festivals where they can, to buy their tickets earlier."

The Greater City of Bendigo, for one, are committing to that level of support says Karamaloudis.

"Yes, for our city, one of our major events that won't play out this year," he adds.

"But the sun will still come up and I think the important thing is we rally round and support [Groovin The Moo] as best we can and support their sustainability going forward."