Another Music Festival Cancelled Due To 'Poor Ticket Sales'

Play On The Plains festival, a community-run, not-for-profit event that would have celebrated its third year in 2023, has been cancelled.

The event would have occurred on Saturday, 11 March, at the site of the famous Deniliquin Ute Muster, Conargo Rd, Deniliquin.

The 2023 edition of the festival would've been headlined by Jessica Mauboy, with King Stingray, Alex Lahey, Northeast Party House, and Carp Factory scheduled to perform during the all-day event.

Play On The Plains has cited poor ticket sales as the reason for its cancellation; it's no longer viable for organisers to try to host an event and suffer a financial loss.

"Play On The Plains is such a great event, and we’ve been committed to getting it off the ground, but the numbers are just not there," Russell Tait, Chairman of Play On The Plains, explained. "On behalf of the Board, staff and artists who have done everything possible to drive ticket sales, we must be realistic and cancel at this point."

General Manager for the festival, Vicky Lowry, added, "We’d like to thank all the suppliers, artists, staff and volunteers who have worked so hard over the past three years to make Play on the Plains the wonderful party it’s been and, hopefully, we’ll be able to play again sometime down the track."

Ticketholders will be contacted and fully refunded.

Last year's event included Amy Shark, Spacey Jane, Skegss, and more.

Last week, festival organiser Drew Heyes revealed that this year's edition of Ninch Fest would be the final one due to rising costs and lower-than-expected ticket sales.

In a new interview with Jenny Valentish in The Age, Heyes claimed slow ticket sales and rising costs as the reasons why Ninch Fest is ending in its sixth year. 

While Ninch's capacity has doubled in recent years, the uncertainty of running a festival with the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic still reverberating through the music industry is too much for an independent event like Ninch Fest.

Heyes recalls members of the public approaching him, hoping that the event hasn't sold out, "But door sales on the day make it hard to predict what to do and how much money to spend."