“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,” said a statement on the festival’s Facebook page posted on Friday.
“We appreciate the ongoing support of the South Australian Government and we look forward to Harvest Rock in the future.”
“This decision was made to ensure that Harvest Rock continues to deliver the experience that our local, national and international fans have come to know and love into the future,” said a slightly different statement on the Harvest Rock website.
No program announcements had been made for the festival, which has taken place in October or November in previous years, but some tickets had been sold via a Black Friday promotion in November 2023, with those ticket holders set to be refunded within two weeks.
South Australia’s tourism minister, Zoe Bettison, told ABC Radio Adelaide on Friday that the government had made a three festival deal with Harvest Rock but that the state government had not lost money on this year’s cancelled edition.
This is the second Secret Sounds festival to be cancelled for 2024, with Splendour in the Grass scrapped in March just six days after tickets went on sale.
Meanwhile, the set of Falls Festivals, held in Melbourne, Byron and Fremantle over the New Year period, were paused for the 2024 new year for the team to “to rest, recover and recalibrate” and their online presence has remained dormant since.
Co-founder of Secret Sounds, Jessica Ducrou, left the company in June.
Secret Sounds is not alone in their festival woes, with several other Australia festivals pausing or cancelling in 2024.
Mona’s Dark Mofo is on pause for 2024, while its summer festival Mona Foma has cancelled permanently after this year’s run. Groovin the Moo also cancelled its run of regional festivals shortly after tickets went on sale.
