It has been a bittersweet week for music fans in the Hunter, with the roaring success of Pink's first stadium show at Broadmeadow followed swiftly by the cancellation of Groovin the Moo this year.
The 2024 incarnation of the long-standing festival that delivered acts including Vampire Weekend and Billie Eilish to this region would have been the first in Newcastle, a decision announced with significant fanfare.
But despite a rapid sell-out here, organisers have evidently deemed the broader tour as a whole is simply too expensive to stage.
It's not an unfamiliar story in the NSW music festival game, where Big Day Out gave way to Soundwave and eventually both faded into history.
The Hunter's past is littered with the likes of Fat As Butter, festivals that at once time drew big crowds but have long since failed to return.
The many moving parts make such events difficult to stage; for every festival that has cancelled entirely, there are likely multiple that have lost a performer at short notice or been forced to shuffle their line-up.
It is an industry with inherent risks, but it is perhaps difficult to argue those dangers have not grown for the industry in 2024.
Inflation is likely to be hitting such events on both ends. Paying the bands is likely no small matter, of course, but neither are the more mundane aspects of the day - security, fencing, alcohol supply and many other minutiae. When the costs of all these elements are rising and the disposable income of the target audience has dwindled at the same time, it is hardly a recipe for unbridled or exponential growth.
The patterns of troubled concerts have not gone unnoticed beyond the scene so enamoured with a day of live music, either.
"The addition of Groovin the Moo to the growing list of festival cancellations is another major blow to the live music industry in Australia. The industry has been struggling to get back on its feet since it was decimated by the COVID pandemic," Greens spokesperson for the arts Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
"Over the past two years a number of Australian festivals have collapsed or been cancelled due to skyrocketing inflation and difficulties with ticket sales in an uncertain economic environment.
"It's clear that there is an urgent need for government support to keep the industry going through these uncertain economic times."
While the Greens are seeking a festivals support package, it remains to be seen if governments already pressed to do more about the strain on households can stretch their budgets to cover music festival aid as well.
Efforts to revive live music's glory days have been ongoing for many years, but it is difficult to see the fruits of such labour when long-running, established events are falling by the wayside.
That does not mean the battle is lost, but it is clear that things must change if music festivals will win an encore.
