2018 Splendour In The Grass Sideshows

Are you suffering from post-Splendour sell-out blues?

If you missed out on a ticket to the Byron Bay festival and the fomo is settling in with a blanket and onesie on your couch this winter, there is good news at hand; at least if you live in Melbourne or Sydney that is.

A host of official and unofficial Splendour In The Grass sideshows have been revealed.

Rather than rabbiting-on like a half-baked pork chop about who is sharing the Splendour love, scroll down to see if your favourite band have made arrangements for you to hang this July.

Official Sideshows

The Wombats

Special guest Elderbrook

First cab off the rank are UK mega-stars The Wombats, who have carved out some room in their hectic schedule to add shows in Melbourne and Sydney to their Splendour appearance.

The hit rate on these guys is officially getting Beatles-esque as they soak up the praise for their latest album 'Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life' and its massive singles ‘Lemon To A Knife Fight’ and ‘Cheetah Tongue’.


Thu 19 Jul – Festival Hall (Melbourne)
Tue 24 Jul – Hordern Pavilion (Sydney)

Yungblud

Young, socially aware and whip-smart Northern firecracker Yungblud will bring an undeniable energy to club shows in Sydney and Melbourne, complementing his first Splendour experience.

An axe-wielding street poet with hip hop and ska leanings, Yungblud blew up last year with his rousing anthem 'I Love You, Will You Marry Me'.

Sat 21 Jul – Corner Hotel (Melbourne)
Tue 24 Jul – Oxford Art Factory (Sydney)

Lewis Capaldi

From Scotland, Lewis Capaldi is a 21-year-old prodigy with a voice aimed directly at those little hairs on the back of your neck.

His debut tune 'Bruises' was an immediate viral sensation, making him the fastest ever unsigned artist to amass 25 million plays on Spotify. This will be Lewis first trip to Australia shores and his collection of heartbreaking torch songs are set to stun at his two east-coast sideshows.

Tue 24 Jul – Howler (Melbourne)
Wed 25 Jul – Oxford Art Factory (Sydney)

Towkio

Chicago-based rapper Towkio is also making his first trip Down Under, packing his breathless flow and white-hot hooks and providing the perfect winter warmer for chilly punters at Splendour sideshows in Sydney and Melbourne.

Signed by none other than Rick Rubin and collaborating with some of the hottest producers on Earth, Towkio;s debut album 'WWW.' is a mind-bending trip not for the faint hearted.

Thu 19 Jul – Howler (Melbourne)
Fri 20 Jul – Oxford Art Factory (Sydney)

Marmozets

Also taking part in some extra-curricular Splendour activity are English alt-rockers Marmozets.

Fiercely lead by singer Becca Macintyre and known for their rousing anthems and intricate melodic work, these guys would be the perfect addition to any sideshow lolly bag.

Click here to read our February 2018 interview with the band.

Touring on the back of their second album 'Knowing What You Know Now', a record borne of sickness and triumph, Marmozets will tear the roof off their Sydney and Melbourne shows.

Wed 18 Jul – Lansdowne Hotel (Sydney)
Thu 19 Jul – The Evelyn (Melbourne)

Unofficial Sideshows

Chromeo

It's been six years since the Canadian electro-funk pair Chromeo visited Australia. With the duo set to appear at the upcoming Splendour In The Grass, Frontier Touring is thrilled to confirm that Chromeo will also be playing two long-overdue gigs in Melbourne and Sydney.

Having just kicked off their extensive world tour in support of fifth record 'Head Over Heels' with a packed show at Coachella, the Montreal natives will be touching down in Australia in July to keep the party going.

Sat 21 Jul - Max Watts (Melbourne)
Sun 22 Jul - Metro Theatre (Sydney)

James Bay

Grammy-nominated UK songwriter James Bay first formed a relationship with Australia back in 2015, and has consistently played to sold-out crowds ever since.

Three years on and Bay still can’t enough. Frontier Touring are thrilled to confirm that he’ll be returning to our shores on his 'Electric Light' tour to play two very special theatre shows in Melbourne and Sydney this July.

2018 looks to be another huge year for the musician, showing absolutely no signs of slowing down after two huge tours in the USA and UK.


Tue 24 Jul - Hamer Hall (Melbourne)
Wed 25 Jul - State Theatre (Sydney)

Franz Ferdinand and MGMT

Frontier Touring are thrilled to announce that two of the most prolific bands of recent times, Franz Ferdinand and MGMT, will join forces for a pair of special co-headline shows in Australia this July.

These shows mark both Franz Ferdinand and MGMT's first visits to our shores in five years, with co-headline performances in Melbourne and Sydney as well as a stop at Byron Bay’s Splendour In The Grass festival.

Glasgow quintet Franz Ferdinand remain one of the UK's biggest exports of the last two decades, and will perform in Australia on the back of announcing a huge world tour and dropping fifth record 'Always Ascending'.

MGMT are Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, the Grammy-nominated duo who have been producing innovative psychedelic pop anthems since their 2008 debut 'Oracular Spectacular'. The band's fourth album, 'Little Dark Age', was released earlier this year.


Tue 24 Jul - Festival Hall (Melbourne)
Wed 25 Jul - Hordern Pavilion (Sydney)

Bully

Bully last stormed Australia in 2015 with a string of east-coast shows, and now Frontier Touring and I OH YOU are thrilled to confirm that the Nashville quartet will bring their joyous pop-punk back to Sydney and Melbourne this July while in the country to play Splendour In The Grass.

Alongside consistent and razor-sharp songwriting, Bully’s stature as a band-to-watch has grown taller on the live stage. 2015 was a breakthrough year for the band, playing Lollapalooza, followed by an extensive US run and their Australian debut.

Wed 18 Jul - The Tote (Melbourne)
Thu 19 Jul - The Lansdowne Hotel (Sydney)

Superorganism

Adding to their already announced Splendour In The Grass appearance, London-based collective Superorganism will play their first-ever Australian headline shows.

Rising to prominence off the back of their technicolour pop single 'Something For Your M.I.N.D.', Superorganism have been on a runaway train of success. Superorganism's eight members, international musicians and self-confessed pop-culture junkies, hail from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the UK, and live under one roof in London's East End.


Originally bonding via internet forums rather than geographical location, it’s the band’s new-age sonic appeal that sets them apart.

Sun 22 Jul – 170 Russell (Melbourne)
Tue 24 Jul – Metro Theatre (Sydney)

Lord Huron

Handsome Tours is excited to announce US indie-folk band Lord Huron will return to Sydney and Melbourne for headline shows this July, in addition to their festival performance at Splendour In The Grass.

Lord Huron was last in Australia for Bluesfest in 2016, and a sold-out run of headline dates to support the release of their breakout album 'Strange Trails' (2015), which included the hit single 'The Night We Met' as feature in the Netflix show '13 Reasons Why'.

Lord Huron will be joined on stage by Perth based singer-songwriter Carla Geneve.

Sun 15 Jul - The Factory Theatre (Sydney)
Wed 18 Jul - Melbourne Recital Centre

Lil Xan

An enigmatic, new face in hip hop emerging from the deepest depths of Soundcloud and scaling the highest echelons of Spotify stream counts, Californian rapper Lil Xan will jump on the Splendour In The Grass sideshows bandwagon for a couple of all-ages sideshows in Sydney and Melbourne.

A controversial spirit, his signature track 'Betrayed' has been streamed close to 200 million times (its video is putting up similar numbers on YouTube), has gone gold in Australia and has landed the 21-year-old rapper at the forefront of a growing counterculture in the US.


Fri 20 Jul - Festival Hall (Melbourne)
Sun 22 Jul - Enmore Theatre (Sydney)

More sideshows to be announced soon, stay tuned.