The news on Tuesday that Laneway Festival was turning its back on Brisbane set my group chats alight, as friends expressed outrage over the loss of yet another festival.

The comment section on Laneway’s Instagram announcement mirrored our disapproval. One user decried it as the “biggest crime of 2025”, which may be hyperbolic, but the comment had garnered almost 700 likes by Wednesday afternoon.

While it could have been worse – the event might have joined the litany of other festivals relegated to the graveyard – the move to Southport still felt like a blow to the local music scene.

Instead of finding another spot in the River City, organisers decided to move the festival’s 26th instalment 75 kilometres south to “get the [RNA] site Olympic ready”.

So, if the Brisbane Showgrounds are

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