The summer festival season is winding down, and I’ve spent the last three months standing side-of-stage, backstage, or in production offices at more than a dozen events across the eastern seaboard. Time for an honest look at what worked and what didn’t.

I’ll skip the diplomatic version. Promoters read this site. They can handle the truth.

Attendance Was Up, But Not Evenly

Overall numbers across the major festivals tracked up roughly 8-12 percent compared to last summer. That sounds healthy, and it is — but the gains weren’t spread evenly. The festivals that saw strong growth were the ones that had clear identities and loyal audiences. Think Bluesfest, Golden Plains, and the boutique events that know exactly who they’re for.

The festivals that tried to be everything to everyone — stacking pop, hip-hop, electronic, and rock acts on the same bill hoping to cast the widest net — mostly saw flat or declining numbers. Audiences have gotten smarter about where they spend their festival budgets. They want a cohesive experience, not a random playlist spread across a paddock.

The biggest surprise was regional festival growth. Events in the Hunter Valley, the Sunshine Coast hinterland, and regional Victoria pulled numbers that would have seemed ambitious five years ago. People are willing to travel for the right experience, especially when metro festival tickets keep climbing past the $300 mark for a day pass.

What Promoters Got Right

Pricing transparency was the biggest improvement I saw this season. Several major festivals moved to all-inclusive pricing — your ticket covers camping, parking, and basic amenities. No more death-by-a-thousand-fees at checkout. The audience response was overwhelmingly positive, and the festivals that did this saw higher conversion rates from “interested” to “purchased.”

Artist programming depth was better than it’s been in years. Instead of blowing the entire budget on two or three headliners and filling the undercard with cheap filler, several festivals invested in strong mid-card acts. Falls Festival did this particularly well. Every stage had someone worth watching at every time slot, which kept the crowd energy consistent all day instead of the usual pattern of dead zones between headliners.

Water and shade infrastructure finally caught up. After years of heat-related incidents making headlines, most major festivals deployed significantly more free water stations, shaded rest areas, and misting zones. Not glamorous, but it directly affects whether punters have a good time or end up in the medical tent.

Cashless systems are now genuinely smooth. I remember the disasters of early rollouts — crashed systems, hour-long queues, lost top-ups. This summer, the technology just worked.

What Didn’t Work

Over-reliance on nostalgia acts. I saw at least four festivals this summer anchored by headliners whose biggest hits were 15-20 years old. There’s nothing wrong with legacy acts — they draw a crowd. But when your entire top line is a reunion tour and two “classic album” performances, you’re telling your audience that the best music already happened. That’s a losing message long-term.

VIP pricing has gotten absurd. One festival I attended was charging $899 for a “VIP experience” that amounted to a roped-off area with slightly shorter bar queues and a viewing platform that was honestly further from the stage than general admission. At another, the $600 VIP package included an “exclusive artist meet-and-greet” that turned out to be a 30-second handshake in a tent with no air conditioning. When you charge premium prices, you need to deliver premium experiences. Several festivals this summer did not.

Sound quality at outdoor stages. This is a perennial complaint, and I’m tired of making it, but here we go again. Too many festivals are still running PA systems that are undersized for the spaces they’re covering, or positioned so poorly that half the audience is getting reflected sound off nearby structures. I watched one act play to 5,000 people through a system that would have been adequate for 2,000. The band was brilliant. The audience 50 metres back couldn’t tell.

Waste management at camping festivals remains a disaster at several events. Despite all the sustainability messaging and the branded recycling bins, I walked through camping areas on pack-out day that looked like a tip. Broken tents, abandoned camping gear, mountains of rubbish. The festivals that nailed this were the ones with strict bond systems — you pay a deposit, you get it back when your campsite passes inspection. Simple, effective, and still not adopted widely enough.

The Bigger Picture

The Australian festival scene is in decent health, but it’s at an inflection point. Costs are rising across the board — artist fees, insurance, security, infrastructure, compliance. Ticket prices are rising in response, and there’s a ceiling on what audiences will pay.

The festivals that will thrive over the next few years are the ones with clear identities, genuine community, reasonable pricing, and operational excellence. The ones coasting on brand recognition while cutting corners on the actual experience are living on borrowed time.

Audiences remember how you made them feel. Get that right, and they’ll come back every year. Get it wrong, and no amount of marketing will save you.

Roll on winter festival season.