Parkway Drive’s planned Park Waves Festival — the band’s first-ever touring festival in Australia — will no longer go ahead.
Organisers Destroy All Lines confirmed the cancellation, posting a statement across social media explaining that the numbers behind the ambitious run “no longer stack up.”
“We’re devastated to confirm the Park Waves Festival Australian tour will not go ahead,” the statement read. “The cancellation is due to a combination of challenges, and ultimately, the numbers no longer stack up. With a heavy heart, we’ve had to make a difficult decision. We’ve tried everything. We’re gutted.”
The festival was scheduled to take place across February and March 2026, with stops in Perth, Adelaide, Geelong, Scoresby, Bendigo, Wollongong, Sydney, Maitland, Toowoomba, Byron Bay and Sandstone Point. Ticket holders will automatically receive refunds, with organisers confirming additional details will be emailed directly.
In a separate statement posted to their own channels, Parkway Drive described the decision as “a kick in the guts,” noting the increasingly difficult landscape for major touring events in Australia.
“Another festival being crushed by the rising costs across our entertainment industry,” the band wrote. “It hurts to be another casualty in this chapter of the Australian music scene. We’ve tried every possible option to keep this dream alive, but the reality of the circumstances won’t allow for it.”
Park Waves originally launched in Germany in 2024, where Parkway Drive headlined alongside Fit for a King and Australian heavyweights Thy Art Is Murder. The Australian edition was intended to bring that model home, with the band emphasising their desire to reach regional audiences that often miss out on arena-level tours.
Speaking with Rolling Stone AU/NZ earlier this year, vocalist Winston McCall said the concept had been years in the making. “Being able to take it regional is really important,” he explained. “This is the first Byron show we’ve been able to play in 12 years… If you don’t have an entertainment centre, you’re playing a 1000-cap club and thousands of people are missing out.”
The cancellation follows a milestone era for Parkway Drive, who performed a widely praised, career-defining show at the Sydney Opera House in 2023 and released their single “Sacred,” their first new music since 2022’s Darker Still. Park Waves was expected to be the band’s major domestic live moment for 2026.
Destroy All Lines closed their statement by thanking fans who purchased tickets and continue to support Australian live music during a turbulent period for promoters and touring artists alike.
