Aussie Festival Prices Are Rising Twice As Fast As Inflation

Going to a music festival in Australia is starting to feel less like a rite of passage and more like a luxury item, with new research revealing that the average festival ticket price has exploded by 180% since 2004 – and it’s still climbing faster than inflation.

A new study from Culture Kings has crunched ticket data from 11 of the country’s biggest festies, finding that the average Aussie festival ticket has jumped from around $120 in 2004 to $334 in 2025. That’s more than triple the pace of inflation over the same period, and if current trends continue, punters could be staring down a $427 average ticket by 2030… and a downright spicy $546 by 2035.

“When ticket prices rise faster than wages and faster than inflation, it risks turning a shared cultural experience into a luxury.”

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In plain terms: festival tickets are rising at around 6.7% every year, while inflation is ticking along at roughly 2.7%. So even if your pay packet isn’t shrinking, festival prices are still sprinting away from you.

Culture Kings ANZ President Justin Hillberg says it’s a dangerous path for one of Australia’s most cherished cultural traditions:

“Festivals are part of Australia’s cultural heartbeat,” he said. “But when ticket prices rise faster than wages and faster than inflation, it risks turning a shared cultural experience into a luxury.”

And it’s not just the big coastal blowouts feeling the squeeze:

Earth Frequency Is The Wildest Outlier

If you’re looking for the most jaw-dropping stat in the whole report, Earth Frequency is it.

The bush doof darling has gone from a humble $60 ticket in 2007 to $339 in 2025 – a mind-melting 365% increase. At its current growth rate, Earth Frequency tickets could hit $550 by 2030, rising at nearly four times the rate of inflation.

Welcome To The $500 Club

Several of Australia’s most-loved festivals are already knocking on the door of the so-called “$500 Club” – or have already walked straight through it.

Lost Paradise sits at $506 in 2025, and is projected to reach $663 by 2030
Bluesfest could rise from $482 now to $630 by 2030
Spilt Milk is forecast to climb from $320 to around $503 in just five years
Beyond The Valley could jump from $380 to nearly $487

And Bluesfest is also home to one of the biggest pricing gulfs in the country – with premium passes pushing $1,950 while entry tickets can still be found around the $85 mark.

Even the “more affordable” festivals aren’t immune. Across the entire dataset, not one event is keeping pace with inflation – they’re all outstripping it.

So… What Now?

The Culture Kings report doesn’t suggest festivals are about to implode overnight, but it does raise a pretty confronting question: How long before young fans, students and regional punters are completely priced out?

With many festivals already struggling to survive in the current economic climate, the danger is that rising prices will quietly reshape festival culture – from something open, communal and scrappy into something only the well-heeled can realistically attend.

Or, as Hillberg puts it: if things don’t change soon, the Australian festival experience might stop being a rite of passage — and start being a status symbol.