Canberra music-lovers will miss out on yet another music festival following the sudden cancellation of Spilt Milk, which was scheduled for this November. It follows the recent cancellation of Groovin’ The Moo at Epic last April. Spilt Milk plans to return in 2025.
Organisers have kept the reasons for the cancellation under wraps, however offered a promise of a return when they can “make all your dreams come true”.
The festival announced its 2024 cancellation on social media, apologising to fans and stating “we couldn’t get you the Spilt Milk you deserve this year”.
Originally only held in Canberra (2018), Spilt Milk expanded to Ballarat, then the Gold Coast and also to Perth. Over the years, Spilt Milk had cemented its spot as a popular event on the annual Australian music fest calendar.
Previous Spilt Milk events in Canberra have attracted about 5,000 people from the region and surrounding country towns. The line-ups have been impressive, last year, Post Malone headlined and in 2022 – the first Spilt Milk following Covid lockdown – Flume and UK outfit The Wombats headed the bill.
Spilt Milk and Groovin The Moo have previously led the way in providing pill-testing to festival goers.
In 2018, Groovin the Moo music festival was the first in the country to trial free pill testing, and the event hosted the service again in 2019. However, that ended after festival organisers couldn’t secure insurance for the service in subsequent years.
The cancellation news came as a shock to punters who frequent Spilt Milk, especially after the 2023 line-up that saw heavyweights like Budjerah and Ocean Alley take to the stage at Exhibition Park.
This latest cancellation adds to a long list of events not going ahead, as the struggling music festival industry deals with high running costs and insurance premiums.
Spilt Milk had become a staple in the festival calendar, eagerly awaited by music lovers in Canberra and the region. Earlier this year, major player Splendour in the Grass pulled the plug on its 2024 event.
