Here's Who We Think Could Play Splendour In The Grass 2020

UPDATE 19/02/20: Splendour In The Grass 2020 Lineup Announced

Splendour In The Grass has been a staple of Australia’s festival scene for two decades now. While other major festivals have come and gone in that time, there’s something about Splendour that has made it stand the test of time. In fact, not only has it endured the country’s volatile festival scene but it has thrived. Each year we’re delivered headliners of gargantuan proportions that play alongside some of Australia’s most buzzworthy acts.

But now, the festival is on the cusp of its 20^th anniversary, which means something big is coming. On top of that, they’re announcing the 2020 lineup far sooner than usual, which potentially means it is so big that they can’t keep it a secret for too long. So, Music Feeds breaks down five potential headliners for next year’s festival to help turn up the hype to 11.

Rage Against The Machine

Australia pretty much lost their mind when news had “leaked” that the recently reunited Rage Against The Machine were planning to play Splendour In The Grass as part of a larger world tour. Of course, it was exclusively revealed to Music Feeds that was indeed a fake leak, made by a serial pest who is getting deceptively good at these things. But don’t rule out RATM just yet.

Firstly, they’re 100% headlining Coachella so that could very well mean they have other festivals on the cards too – like Glastonbury, Primavera and, of course, Splendour. But it should be noted that the announcement of Splendour’s lineup coming earlier than normal might be caused by this “leak.” Perhaps it scared promoters that the real news was out there – as it would be the biggest surprise they’ve had since Outkast in 2014 – so they could be cutting their losses and moving the announcement forward to get people keen and make sure they’re still the ones to drop the news. It is the 20^th anniversary, after all.

Travis Scott

Travis Scott enjoyed his biggest year of his career to date in 2018 with the release of his phenomenal album ASTROWORLD, and its lead single ‘SICKO MODE’. It’s curious, then, that he hasn’t been brought out to Australia to tour the record since he would sell out any show in minutes. Of course, there was the ill-fated one-off performance scheduled at the debut run of Sandtunes festival on the Gold Coast, but that never came to be.

But Scott is a high budget performer and it feels like taking on the Ampitheatre at Splendour might be the best place for him to put on the show he likes to. That, and a couple of capital city sideshows a la Kendrick Lamar in 2018, and we’ve got ourselves a huge hip-hop headliner.

Lana Del Rey

Anyone who is into speculating about Splendour lineups consistently throws Lana Del Rey out there, and since 2012 we’ve all be consistently wrong. But something tells us that 2020 might just be the year.

First of all, she’s just dropped her fifth studio album Norman Fucking Rockwell! which is being universally heralded as her greatest work to date. Pitchfork gave it their highest score they’ve given any album in five years, and it’s up for Album Of The Year at the 2020 GRAMMYs. It’s huge.

She’s also just wrapped up a North American tour, and teased on Twitter that there’ll be more dates around the world announced soon. She also said to look out for various festival dates, which could coincide with Splendour’s lineup announcement. We need this, Lana.

Flume

For a 20^th anniversary festival, it simply wouldn’t feel right to not have an Australian headliner. So unless the festival has a huge reunion planned, or they take us for a spin and book Nick Cave or Kylie Minogue (please), everyone’s favourite rim king Flume can very easily slide into that slot.

Flume is a guaranteed ticket-seller, and has experience in closing the festival before. While he did tour the country earlier this year for Listen Out festival, he could plan a special one-off performance for this anniversary festival. And given how prolific he’s been in 2019, there’s probably more music coming too. Why not showcase it at Splendour?