Splendour Could Be Forced To Change Venues & Axe Expansion Plans In 2019

Splendour In The Grass co-director Jessica Ducrou has revealed the major Australian festival is at risk of losing its home in 2019 during the NSW parliamentary inquiry into the music industry in Sydney today.

Following its application to stay at the North Byron Parklands permanently late last year, Ducrou told the panel that it is vital the NSW Department Of Planning make a decision by year's end.

"We are concerned with how slow the Department are moving," Ducrou said.

"The reason we need it approved before this year is that it will allow us both the growth that we need to survive. If we don't have it this year, then again, we are going to be, sort of, treading water for the next 12 months."

Ducrou explained that they have big plans to expand Splendour, which regularly sells out within an hour of tickets going on sale, but they cannot execute without approval. 

"If we cannot get approval, we will need to look for alternative sites for the venue. We're committed to NSW but there are not a lot of options for us, so we need to resolve that sooner rather than later.

"We have the ability to sell more tickets but we don't have the capacity approval to do that. So what that means in reality, is that it put constraints on what we can afford to do with the festival.

"We would like to add more stages. We would like to grow the experience of the festival.

"In terms of timing for us, if we don't get approval this year, we can't add the stages, add an extra day to the program, which is what we'd like to do, because we don't have enough time to schedule the talent before we launch the show next year."

This year's festival was a huge success yet again, featuring massive sets from the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Lorde, Gang Of Youths, PNAU and Amy Shark.

Watch today's enquiry here.