Parkway Drive Tell Us Why It's Taken So Long For Them To Headline An Aussie Festival

11 December 2019 | 12:01 pm | Neil Griffiths

"So when an American band comes to Australia and plays a festival, they're already two steps ahead of an Australian band, doesn't matter how big they are."

McCall & Parkway Drive @ Good Things Festival, Brisbane. Pic by Markus Ravik

McCall & Parkway Drive @ Good Things Festival, Brisbane. Pic by Markus Ravik

More Parkway Drive More Parkway Drive

Parkway Drive's headlining sets at Good Things Festival this past weekend, to nobody's surprise, was a resounding success, so it's hard to believe that despite their huge achievements over the years that Good Things was the first local touring festival the Byron Bay outfit have headlined. 

Discussing the shows during an appearance on The Green Room with Neil Griffiths podcast backstage at the Good Things Sydney leg, frontman Winston McCall said he believes local acts struggle to get the recognition they may deserve at Aussie festivals due to a perception that overseas acts are more important. 

"We're a country that looks to America, especially for culture," McCall told host Neil Griffiths.

"We tend to perceive that culture as the best culture. Everything we do is jacked from over there. So when an American band comes to Australia and plays a festival, they're already two steps ahead of an Australian band, doesn't matter how big they are."


McCall said Parkway weren't taking offers from other local festivals for that very reason, while still playing huge European events like Full Force Festival, Wacken Open Air, Bloodstock Festival and Summer Breeze Festival.

Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter

"We've always said that there is amazing talent in this country and especially being definitely the biggest band of this style to come out of Australia, we were never gonna buy into the concept that this is lesser than simply because of geography and we're not gonna encourage that perpetuation," he said.

"So we just never took up offers that weren't legit, basically."

Stream the full Good Things episode (which also features chats with A Day To Remember and Violent Soho) on Spotify, Apple Podcasts (below) or SoundCloud.

Parkway Drive will embark on their biggest headline tour of Australia next year with a string of arena performances. For more details, check out theGuide.