Adelaide Beer & BBQ Festival Prepares For Last Drinks
“Our punters are loyal and bloody amazing, but we can’t continue to pass the costs on to you, you can’t afford them, and we can’t afford to absorb them.”
Adelaide Beer & BBQ Festival (Credit: Nick Astanei)
One of Australia’s most loved independent music festivals, the Adelaide Beer & BBQ Festival, is calling for last drinks.
The final edition of the festival will take place at the Adelaide Showground over the King’s Birthday Long Weekend (6-8 June).
Headliners Wolfmother will share the stage with music icons such as Tim Finn, The Chats, Custard, Rocket Science, The Gooch Palms, and more. The festival has secured over 100 producers and 40+ artists alongside its largest-ever line-up of brewers, distillers, and pitmasters.
While organisers note this may very well be the last Adelaide Beer & BBQ Festival in its current form, it won’t be goodbye forever.
Founders Gareth Lewis and Aaron Sandow commented, “This isn’t a marketing stunt, and we are sure we will be back to present some version of the festival, somewhere, sometime in the future. But this is not a John Farnham tour, it will be The Last Time… as you know it.”
Organisers urge punters to buy tickets, bring their mates, and tell their parents. You can purchase tickets to the 2025 festival on Moshtix.
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Like many Australian music festivals, the Adelaide Beer & BBQ Festival isn’t exempt from being struck by changes in punter behaviour and increased costs in the post-pandemic economic climate.
“Since the enforced Covid break, the festival landscape has been a roller coaster,” Lewis said. “The initial sugar-hit of demand in 2022 gave everyone a false sense of security, and since then, times have been tough, very tough.
“Festivals all over Australia have collapsed, brewers who have been with us from the start have fallen into administration, many have never recovered, and our hospitality friends are being put through the ringer weekly.”
Artist and production costs, plus a beer excise, have risen by 30-40% since 2022, making the Adelaide Beer & BBQ Festival’s model increasingly unsustainable.
Lewis continued, “It’s never been about making money; this festival is who we are. It’s always been about supporting small businesses and giving punters something special, but the cost of putting on a festival of this scale has increased between 30% and 40% since 2022, and for this reason, we can not see a way forward.
“Our punters are loyal and bloody amazing, but we can’t continue to pass the costs on to you, you can’t afford them, and we can’t afford to absorb them.
“We want to thank the South Australian Government, especially the Music Development Office, who have supported the festival for the past few years. The state government is very supportive of the events industry.
“It’s true that there are more major publicly funded events than ever before in SA and it’s hard for independent festival brands to compete on a level playing field with them, but we hope to continue to work with Government for years to come to produce events that add value to the state culturally and economically.”
Since its inception in 2015, the festival has grown from a grassroots event about a shared love of live music, BBQ, and beer into a national institution. It has hosted more than 150,000 punters, showcased more than 400 breweries and small businesses, and always existed for passion rather than profit.
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