Splendour in the Grass music festival cancelled for 2024 due to ‘unexpected events’

The news of this year’s cancellation comes just seven days after tickets went on sale, with Kylie Minogue, G-Flip, Future and Arcade Fire leading the lineup.

The co-chief executives of the festival, Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco from Secret Sounds, did not elaborate on what the “unexpected events” were, and did not return Guardian Australia’s calls on Wednesday.

Guardian Australia understands that the state government had been working with Destination New South Wales to negotiate some kind of financial assistance for the festival, weeks before tickets went on sale on 21 March for the 2024 event.

Secret Sounds has staged the annual three-day festival under the umbrella of the US multinational entertainment company Live Nation since the latter bought a majority share of the Australian entity in 2016.

Graham took a $103m live music policy to the 2023 state election with a promise to help revive the struggling sector brought to a prolonged standstill during Covid lockdowns.

In December, Graham announced the appointment of Ducrou as the chair of the advisory board of Sound NSW, a board set up to advise the government on a 10-year contemporary music strategy, including implementing the recommendations of the 2022 Raising Their Voices report which found sexual harm, sexual harassment and systemic discrimination against women in the Australian contemporary music industry.