It’s been one month since Khalid announced he’d be touching down in Australia for a national headline tour.
The announcement listed all the usual suspects: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, even Adelaide. However, two of the dates on the announcement were Canberra and Ballarat whose venues were listed as “to be announced”.
The tour, which kicks off in late November, turned Aussie music fans into detectives. An investigation was launched and rumours were flying around, shouting about Canberra’s Spilt Milk Festival and how the expected dates coincided, but it didn’t explain Ballarat, the ‘lil regional Victorian town.
Ballarat’s live music scene took a blow this week with the beloved venue, Karova Lounge, announcing its closure. After 15 years the venue that hosted an extensive list of impressive Aussie and international acts will be closing their doors this October.
Karova Lounge owner, Gary Wilson told The Music it was becoming increasingly harder to run a live music venue, “Punters just need to get out and support live music venues if they want to keep seeing music get to regional towns.”
Ballarat music fans may have a saving grace after the sad news though.
Following the cryptic-ness of the “to be announced” venues on Khalid’s tour, a new website has emerged: Khalid TBA.
The website is a simple one, with a field for your email address so you can sign up to be the first to hear what the TBA is all about.
Importantly though, the website features two logos down the bottom of the screen.
The first logo is Free Spirit, Khalid’s most recent album. The second logo belongs to Moshtix — the ticketing provider that Spilt Milk tickets are sold through.
This brings us to the peak of the speculations: is Ballarat getting its own version of Spilt Milk Festival?
It’s looking pretty likely… Ballarat’s regional counterpart Bendigo hosted its leg of the Groovin’ The Moo shows just this weekend past. With an attendance of nearly 20,000 punters, it’s clear that there’s an eagerness for live music in regional Victoria.
Last year’s Spilt Milk Festival had the likes of The Wombats, Angus & Julia Stone, RL Grime, and Peking Duk on the lineup — as well as Childish Gambino whose appearance unfortunately didn’t eventuate due to injury.
More to come, we’re sure.
UPDATE, 04/06/19: Canberra’s Spilt Milk Festival Is Expanding To Ballarat In 2019
UPDATE, 06/06/19: Spilt Milk’s Froth-Worthy 2019 Lineup Is Here
