Big music festivals struggle as cost of living bites

Photo: Sigrid Yiakmis The classic summer festival is the latest loser in the cost of living crisis, with another iconic event announcing its downfall today. Splore is part of a growing list of struggling festivals, with big names like WOMAD and One Love also on pause. But with many young people still crying out for a summer experience, some smaller events are hoping they can pick up punters let down by the big festivals. Splore organiser John Minty announced today that 2026 would be the last year for the festival, which kicked off in 1998. Minty told Morning Report that shutting down for good was the last thing he wanted. "We took a year off last year hoping things would pick up but ticket sales haven't been tracking where we need them to be to feel confident that it's financially sustainable going into the future." With the cost of living biting down hard, a number of people Checkpoint spoke to said they were cutting costs back where they could, and festivals were one of the items getting the chop. "I want to go to all of them obviously, but you do have to pick and choose, things like Electric Avenue I didn't go last year, I'm not going this year but everyone I know is going and it's so expensive," said one festivalgoer. Despite wanting to go, others told Checkpoint they were missing out events like Laneway, Rhythm and Vines and Soundsplash due to the costs. Other festivals to put a pause on things over the past couple of years include One Love and Bay Dreams. Photo: Fede Pagola Long-running Taranaki festival WOMAD is also taking 2026 off after a tough few years. Organiser Suzanne Porter said while it was a hard decision, low ticket sales meant it was the best option. "We came out of post covid with our costs will have increased by over 30 percent, freight, artists, and at the same time you've got a cost of living crisis so you're trying to keep your ticket price, we didn't put our ticket price up at all for those three festivals, so it's just a perfect storm really." While she hoped for a successful comeback in 2027, the future remained uncertain. "We are hopeful that things will improve, we have seen interest rates come down so hopefully people discretionary income has improved slightly." Despite all the festival flops, the young people Checkpoint spoke to all agreed that it was worth scraping the money together to ensure they could enjoy at least one festival each summer. "I think it's for the experience really, festivals are a fun time and a time to meet like-minded people, and why wouldn't you want to see your favourite artist even if it is really pricey. "It's just something I don't want to compromise on, it's the highlight of summer." While many big names are struggling to survive, others continue to thrive despite Challenging times. Photo: SUPPLIED / TEAM EVENT Christchurch's Electric Avenue is going stronger than ever after expanding from one day to two last year. Organiser Callam Mitchell told Checkpoint tickets for the 2026 festival sold out in minutes, and with the demand they could have sold another 50,000. Mitchell said the festival has doubled in size over the past five years, while ticket prices went up an average of 14 percent from 2025 to 2026. "Ultimately people still want to do things even during this economic climate, we've worked have to make sure we're at the top of peoples list." Photo: Supplied As the big names pull out, some smaller festival organisers have also remained optimistic, hoping to be a new option for punters left in the lurch. Along with their mates Finn Geraets and Michael Coutts, Scott Mueller and Rob Newey took a leap and started up Matakanarama last year. Mueller said what was originally a private Facebook event went from strength to strength, and the three-day New Year's festival has now upscaled its capacity from 350 to 1500 this year. "With that comes increases in essentially everything, obviously the budget is considerably higher, but with that come much more impressive artists and much more scope to do these cool little creative things." Photo: Supplied The friends said that being the same age as their audience has helped them figure out how much people are willing to splash out on a summer experience. "It's such a tricky thing to have faith that we're making the right decisions because what sort of feedback you take on, it's all sort of anecdotal through people we know, I guess one of the fortunate pieces we have being the age we are knowing the crowd that we're trying to appeal to, we have a complete 100 percent direct understanding of the financial situation of a lot of people. "In terms of our ticket price, we always wanted to make it competitive compared to our direct and not so direct competitors, and for a three day ticket we're actually undercutting our competitors quite effectively." Despite big competition and uncertain times, the boys were confident they could continue to upscale and create a community that...

Big music festivals struggle as cost of living bites

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