Splendour in the Grass, Byron Bay

What it was

Splendour in the Grass began in 2001 as a one-day event at Belongil Fields, on the edge of Byron Bay, put on by music-industry promoters Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco to showcase Australian and international alternative acts during the winter off-season. It expanded to two days in 2002 and to three days in 2009, growing over the 2000s into a genuine fixture of the Australian festival calendar. It moved temporarily to Woodford, Queensland for its 2010 and 2011 editions, returned to Belongil Fields in 2012, and then relocated to the purpose-built North Byron Parklands site in Yelgun from 2013 onward — the home most visitors and recent attendees would recognise it by.

For a long stretch of its history — more than two decades, in various forms and at a couple of different sites before settling at North Byron Parklands — Splendour in the Grass was widely described as one of Australia's biggest and most consistently well-regarded music festivals, drawing major international and Australian acts to a multi-day camping festival in the hinterland behind Byron Bay. It built a genuine reputation as a rite-of-passage festival for a lot of Australian music fans, alongside a smaller cluster of other major festivals that have, in recent years, also gone through their own cancellations and closures.

North Byron Parklands itself, the purpose-built festival site in Yelgun, was constructed specifically to host large-scale events like Splendour and became closely associated with the festival's identity — the paddocks, the specific stage layout and the general festival-in-a-field character were as much a part of the Splendour experience as the lineup. In a typical year during its run, the festival was held across a long weekend in the Australian winter (historically around July), which set it apart from the more common summer-festival slot most Australian music events occupy.

Over its run, Splendour built a reputation for a strong, eclectic lineup mixing major international headliners with a deep local-and-emerging-artist bill, and for a genuinely muddy, welly-boots-and-ponchos winter-festival atmosphere that became something of an in-joke among regular attendees — winter rain at the site was frequent enough to be treated as part of the tradition rather than a surprise.

Its current status, honestly

As of this writing, Splendour in the Grass is not a running event. The 2024 edition was cancelled just days after tickets had gone on sale, and organisers then confirmed in early 2025 that there would be no 2025 festival either, describing it publicly as needing "a little more time to recharge" and a general "breather," with a stated intention to "come back even bigger and better when the time is right." The festival last actually took place in 2022.

On top of the two cancellations, North Byron Parklands — the site that's hosted the festival since 2013 — has reportedly been placed on the market, with reporting suggesting the land could end up repurposed for something other than festivals entirely (a private estate or wellness retreat has been floated in coverage of the sale). None of that amounts to an official announcement that Splendour is finished for good, but it's a genuinely different picture from a festival simply taking a year off, and this page describes that honestly rather than presenting Splendour as a normal, ongoing annual event.

It's also worth noting this isn't an isolated case in the Australian festival scene of the last few years — a number of other long-running Australian music festivals have gone through similar cancellations, pauses or permanent closures over roughly the same period, cited variously to rising costs, insurance and weather risk, and softer ticket sales. Splendour's situation sits within that broader, genuinely difficult stretch for the industry rather than being a one-off.

What a return might look like

The promoter has publicly left the door open to bringing Splendour back at some point, without committing to a date or a venue. Whether that would mean a return to North Byron Parklands (if the site sale doesn't preclude further festival use) or a move to a different location entirely is genuinely unknown at the time of writing.

If you're specifically hoping to attend a future edition, the only reliable approach is to check the festival's own official channels directly and periodically, rather than trusting secondhand blog posts, old itineraries, or this page's snapshot of the situation — festival status like this can change with little notice in either direction, and a confirmed return, a confirmed permanent end, or continued uncertainty are all plausible outcomes from where things currently stand.

The hinterland and the Byron Bay area regardless

Whatever happens with the festival itself, the Byron Bay hinterland that hosted it is worth visiting on its own terms — rolling farmland, small towns and a laid-back pace that's a genuine change of register from Byron's beach-town centre, even without a festival running. It's a normal part of a Byron Bay stay rather than something that only makes sense during festival season.

Byron Bay itself remains one of the east coast's most popular stops regardless of what's happening at North Byron Parklands, and its own live-music and events calendar runs independently of any one festival's fortunes — smaller, locally run gigs, markets and events continue in and around the town whether or not a big touring festival is using the hinterland site in any given year.

If you were planning around it

If Splendour was the anchor of a planned Byron Bay trip, it's worth rebuilding that itinerary around the region on its own merits rather than waiting on a festival announcement that may or may not come in time for your travel dates. Byron Bay and its hinterland carry plenty of drawcards independent of any one event — beaches, the lighthouse walk, the surrounding national parks and the string of small hinterland towns are all there whether or not North Byron Parklands hosts anything that particular year.

For travellers who specifically want a big Australian music festival experience and don't mind which one, it's worth checking the current status of the country's other major festivals too, since the picture across the whole industry has shifted meaningfully in the last few years — some events have folded permanently, some have paused and returned, and new ones have occasionally launched to fill the gap. Treat any single festival's status, this one included, as a snapshot rather than a guarantee.