While a lot of people are already counting down the days until Splendour in the Grass rolls around again, others are just scrolling through the newly-released lineup putting together a list of bands they’re hoping will announce a bunch of side shows.
Aside from ScHoolboy Q and Future Islands, no other acts have ruled themselves out with the dreaded tag of ‘only Australian show’, so there’s every reason to expect we’ll see the likes of LCD Soundsystem and Queens of the Stone Age playing at least one extra gig.
But with so many acts on the bill though, who’s in the most demand? We did a highly-unscientific trawl of social media to pick some winners.
Queens of the Stone Age
Obviously the internationals lead the pack here, and the first name on everyone’s lips is Queens of the Stone Age – but it seems that a few punters are hoping for a one-two punch together with Royal Blood. Maybe the latter can save on venue hire and just nab the support slot?
LCD Soundsystem
Next up, LCD Soundsystem is obviously a huge draw, and fingers will be very sore from copious amounts of crossing by the time July rolls around. LCD haven’t played here since 2010, but promised last year that they’d return as soon as they could after a planned tour was scrapped before being announced.
Lil Yachty
Rapper Lil Yachty is in high demand too, and could apparently pull a King Gizzard and sell out seven nights in a row if some of his fans are to be believed. There’s currently a holding page up for him on Ticketmaster, but nothing else to see here – yet.
Haim
The sister trio haven’t been to Australia for a little while now, but having played Laneway and Splendour in the past, they’re in love with the place. “I would give my left ovary to come back to Australia,” said Este back in 2013, and it seems like some of their fans would donate various body parts to the cause too. Emma here is particularly hanging for post-Splendour gigs, as she’ll be missing out on the festival itself due to a pesky issue of age.
Tove Lo
A lot of love flying around for Swedish singer-songwriter Tove Lo, especially from a very excited Rhys, who managed to keep this one a secret for ages it seems. However, he may have just let the cat out of the bag prematurely on the sideshow front, as we haven’t seen an announcement for that one yet. You heard it here first!
And the list goes on
There’s plenty of demand for just about every international act, with plenty of begging being directed towards Banks, The xx, LANY, Catfish & The Bottlemen, and Stormzy especially.
One ScHoolboy Q fan has either missed the memo about Q’s exclusive appearance, or is hoping that a few superfluous Gs will get him over the line.
Meanwhile, another anxious fan just really, really wants The xx to play, but should probably be reassured that they’ll almost certainly play some sideshows, we promise.
Finally, one punter is a bit sick of Brissy being left out of the equation, but unfortunately Splendour has a stranglehold on the local market. Still, we’re crossing our fingers for all of you, Gil!
For now, all we can do is wait, and hope, and save all the money we possibly can.
