While still waiting for its permanent site in Byron Bay to be given official approval, Splendour In The Grass has decided to pull up stakes from its Queensland home for the past two years and return to Byron Bay.
“We are excited at the prospect of returning to the birth place of Splendour,” said co-producer Jessica Ducrou. It will be staged July 27-29 at Belongil Fields, which is where the first few Splendours were held. This means a drop from its 30,000 capacity to 17,500 for 2012.
Splendour generates $20 million for the local economy, which is why Byron Bay businesses had hastily scrawled “welcome back!” messages posted in their shop windows hours after the festival’s return was announced.
Allan Sutherland, mayor of the Moreton Bay Regional Council that had been urging Splendour to stay in Queensland, was “very disappointed and shocked. But I appreciate it was a commercial decision. Splendour is always welcome back here.”