Laneway music festival cancels major Aussie cities ahead of 2027 show

One of Australia’s most successful music festivals has announced a major change for the 2027 event.

Laneway announced on August 10 that the festival will not be returning to Perth and Adelaide in 2027. The Queensland event will also return to Brisbane Showgrounds after taking place on the Gold Coast in 2026.

The news was shared in an Instagram post, in which the team acknowledged that the news is likely to be devastating for fans in South Australia and Western Australia.

“For over two decades, we’ve had the pleasure of bringing Laneway to Australia and New Zealand, with stints in Singapore and Detroit too. Running so many shows, so close together, across so much ground is a logistical feat we are proud of, but it also asks a lot of our lineup and crew,” the post read.

“Taking a pause allows us to focus on making the festival the best it can be, while freeing up time for more artists to bring headline shows to cities beyond our festival stops.

“Adelaide and Perth, we love you! We are incredibly grateful to every single person who has shown up for us over the years. This isn’t goodbye, just see you soon.”

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The post also teased that the lineup for the 2027 event is “loading”.

Laneway has been one of Australia’s biggest music festivals over the past few years, bringing the likes of Chappell Roan, Charli XCX and Fred Again to Aussie shores.

Following Covid many Aussie music festivals came to an end, forced to shut down mainly due to low ticket sales.

At the time, there were fears that the cancellations were a sign of bad news for the Aussie live music industry; however, festival organisers recently assured nine.com.au that that is not the case.

“I think each individual festival had its own unique story, and it wasn’t necessarily a trend. Because amongst all of that, there were festivals also doing fine and thriving in some cases. I mean, we certainly didn’t experience anything like that,” said the founder of Finely Tuned and Lost Paradise, Simon Beckingham.

“But obviously, I really felt for the parts of the industry that were hit quite hard by that effect ... everything’s always a bit more nuanced and there’s always a bit more to it when you dig a bit deeper.”