Harvest Rock music festival has cancelled its event planned for October in Adelaide following concerns about the organiser’s financial position.
The cancellation was announced on the Harvest Rock Instagram page, but no reasons were given.
Organisers said prepurchased tickets would be refunded.
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“We’ve been working hard to make Harvest Rock III another incredible event, however we have made the difficult decision to not hold the festival in 2024,” the post said.
“We appreciate the ongoing support of the South Australian Government and we look forward to Harvest Rock in the future.”
Harvest Rock started in 2022 by produced Live Nation-owned Secret Sounds, which also runs Splendour in the Grass and Falls Festival.
The festival’s application for an October event in Adelaide anticipated 40,000 people would attend.
Fans had been wondering whether Harvest Rock would go ahead this year because no line-up or ticket details had been released with only two months until the event was due to be staged.
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas earlier this week said he made enquiries about the future of Harvest Rock.
“What we’ve been communicated to us by Live Nation, who are the, you know, the curator and the producer of Harvest Rock is that they are really struggling,” he told ABC Radio Adelaide.
“So only in the last sort of couple of days, as we started to hear this news, we’ve put to them that we want some clarity about what is happening there.”
Secret Sounds also cancelled Splendour in the Grass this year because of “unexpected events”.
The company’s debts outweighed its assets by $9.3 million at the end of 2022, according to media reports.
Malinauskas said it was a difficult time for music festivals.
“It’s precarious this year, so what we’ve seen around the country is music festivals effectively hit the fence,” he said.
“The economics of music festivals around the country and the availability of acts have become highly problematic ever since Covid.”
Fans of Harvest Rock expressed their disappointment on social media.
“My partner and I have travelled interstate for the last two and would love to continue the tradition, one of the best festivals we’ve been to,” one person said.
“For those two years, I’ve taken a flight from Newy for this. Such a well run event. Please come back strong,” another person said.
Secret Sounds has been contacted for comment.
