Major music festival cancelled 24 hours out from first show

A major music festival has pulled the pin just 24 hours before the first show of its Australian tour.

Rolling Loud, which positions itself as “The world’s largest hip-hop festival”, was due to play a “pre-roll” showcase gig at the Eaton Hotel in Brisbane on Saturday, followed by full one-day festival events at Centennial Park in Sydney next Saturday and Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne next Sunday.

The main festival’s line-up included leading US hip-hop artists Gunna, SexxyRed and Ken Carson, among others.

But just after 2pm on Friday, the promoters posted on social media that the event “will not move forward”.

By way of explanation, the RollingLoudAustralia Facebook page said: “Unfortunately our local partner, Primuse Entertainment, failed to meet critical payment deadlines and related obligations. These ongoing delays left us without the necessary guarantees so close to the event. We will not compromise the safety or experience of our fans, artists, and vendors.”

Promising that “All ticket purchasers will be entitled to a refund”, the page noted “This one hurts”.

However, Rolling Stone reported on Friday afternoon that Primuse Australia had tried to hose down reports that the event had been cancelled.

“We are aware of media reports regarding Rolling Loud Australia,” the statement read. “As the local promoter, we are currently in discussion with Rolling Loud and will provide an official update as soon as possible. We ask fans to wait for confirmed information, which will be communicated directly via our official channels.”

An hour after the US-based parent Rolling Loud confirmed the cancellation on Facebook, Primuse had not updated its social media feeds. It was also still possible to buy tickets to the Sydney and Melbourne shows via the parent US festival’s website on Friday afternoon. The link to the Australian leg’s homepage, posted on Facebook, is dead.

This is not the first time Rolling Loud, which features a line-up of underground hip-hop talent from the US, has promised to mount an Australian event only for it to be cancelled.

Though a single show was successfully staged in 2019, the 2024 iteration of Rolling Loud Australia was cancelled in November 2023, with organisers saying on that occasion that “due to circumstances beyond our control we are unable to give you a show that lives up to the Rolling Loud standard”. It promised that the event was merely postponed to a later date.

The precise reasons for the cancellation of the 2026 edition are unclear, though one supplier – who asked for anonymity to speak freely and predicted they would be about $115,000 out of pocket – was of the view that Singapore-based Primuse, which held the local licence for the US-based festival, had simply underestimated the costs of staging an event of this scale.

“I think it’s a combination of a promoter thinking they can trade off the back of an established brand to be able to feed bills running forward,” the source said.

“But the reality of it is you’re looking at a two- to three-year turnaround [on investment]. You’ve got to lose money for two to three years to see payback on that, and you might make money by the fourth or fifth year.”

Adding to the complexity of an event such as this is the likelihood that at least some of the acts on the bill have criminal records, meaning obtaining visas to allow them into the country is far from guaranteed.

“There’s not a lot of trust in that hip-hop genre,” the source said. “To be honest, I think this is probably the death of any touring hip-hop festivals in the foreseeable future in Australia, because people won’t buy tickets because they don’t believe [the shows] are going to happen.”

In response to questions from this masthead, a spokesperson for Primuse said the company did not accept “certain aspects” of the way US-based Rolling Loud had framed the collapse of the local event.

“While there are differing views regarding the circumstances that led to this outcome, we stand firmly by the manner in which we have conducted ourselves throughout this process,” the spokesperson said.

“Primuse acted in good faith throughout and made reasonable efforts to deliver a successful event for fans, artists and partners, with the intention of ensuring the festival could proceed as planned. Our immediate focus is on supporting ticket holders and working closely with the relevant parties to ensure refunds are processed as efficiently as possible.”