SXSW Sydney and Melbourne Meet-ups Scheduled February 17

Australia's festival season is heating up, but for music fans, the cost of entry is rising faster than ever. New analysis by Culture Kings of ticket data from 11 major Australian music festivals shows that prices have surged dramatically beyond inflation and are projected to continue climbing over the next decade.

Two of rock's most enduring heavyweights are set to shake arenas across Australia and New Zealand in 2026, as A Day To Remember and Papa Roach join forces for the Big Rock Tour. French modern metalcore act Landmvrks will also be on board as special guests, delivering a stacked line-up of high-energy performances.

British electronic innovators Faithless will return to Australia and New Zealand in March 2026, marking their first visit to the region in fifteen years, as they bring their signature mix of house, trip-hop and dub to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland. Their last appearance on Australian soil was at the Good Vibrations festival in 2011, a moment remembered for showcasing one of the most influential acts in global club culture.

Belinda Carlisle will return to Australia in March 2027 for her final national run, the G'Day & Goodbye Tour.

Tool's return to New Zealand has offered Australian fans a preview of what to expect when the band arrives later this month. The Los Angeles progressive metal innovators performed two consecutive nights in Auckland on 22 and 23 November, delivering setlists that diverged sharply across the two shows and included a remarkable selection of rarely played catalogue deep cuts. For a group renowned for its precision, its disciplined touring cycles, and its aversion to nostalgia, this was a significant display of musical archival excavation.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings will return to Australia in February and March 2026 for a second run of their Woodland tour following a completely sold-out stretch earlier this year. After packing the Sydney Opera House across three nights and filling Hamer Hall in Melbourne across five performances, the Americana folk icons will once again bring their acclaimed two-guitar, two-voice format to Australian audiences.

Eddie Izzard will return to Australia in June 2026 to present a daring one-person staging of The Tragedy Of Hamlet, an ambitious theatrical feat that sees the Emmy-winning and Tony-nominated performer embody all 23 characters in Shakespeare's most enduring drama. The production arrives following sold-out runs across the United States and United Kingdom and a wave of acclaim for Izzard's transformation of the classic tragedy into a modern, intimate showcase of performance craft.