The country festival Ridin' Hearts is skipping this year entirely, telling fans it's a pause rather than a permanent farewell.
Ridin’ Hearts, the country festival that brought Nashville names to Sydney and Melbourne, is taking all of 2026 off.
Organisers confirmed Ridin’ Hearts will skip 2026 and aim to return in 2027, framing the gap as a break rather than a goodbye. More news for the year was promised without any detail attached.
Lewis Love.
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Launched in 2023, the festival built a two-city model, staging the same bill across Sydney and Melbourne over a single weekend. The 2025 event was its third run. It’s presented by Frontier Touring, part of the Mushroom Group.
The most recent edition took place on 25 October at Sydney Showground and 26 October at Caribbean Gardens in Melbourne. Both dates shared a lineup led by Megan Moroney, Nate Smith, Avery Anna and Waylon Wyatt, with Blake Whiten, Karley Scott Collins and Australian acts Lane Pittman, Sara Berki and
The break arrives during a rough stretch for Australian festivals. A federal parliamentary inquiry into the live music industry, requested by Arts Minister Tony Burke in 2024, examined a wave of cancellations across the sector, tabling its final report in early 2025 with 20 recommendations. Submissions to that inquiry described parts of the festival sector as being in crisis.
Appetite for the genre isn’t the issue. Frontier Touring’s current schedule lists a string of American country acts playing Australia, among them Kip Moore, Drake Milligan, Sawyer Hill, Tyler Braden and Waylon Wyatt.
No 2026 lineup exists, and no ticket dates have been set for the comeback edition. Anyone chasing updates can join the festival’s Heartbreakers mailing list, which handles presales and announcements ahead of the planned 2027 return.
For more information, head here.
