The Nowhere Festival announces postponement of its inaugural event

Eora/Sydney's The Nowhere Festival has this morning announced it will be postponing its 2025 event.

Scheduled to take place on Eora's Cockatoo Island across February 8-9, the festival was set bring a massive cast of international acts spanning some of the world's most exciting names in house, techno and a diverse range of more experimental electronic music. An extended back to back by Detroit luminaries Carl Craig and Moodymann, Ibiza renowned Italian DJ and producer Adiel, alongside Berlin icon Marcel Dettmann also feature, with Particles (Jane Fitz and Marco Shuttle), Quest, Mr. Ho, Mr. G and Paul Woolford were just a section of the full lineup, with many local selectors and producers set to join too.

The festival, organised by promoter Jody Coker who is responsible for the likes of Essential Events Management and the annual Gorgeous Presents NYE party at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Australia, was an ambitious first undertaking poised to redefine Eora's festival possibilities pending its success.

Unfortunately however, Coker and his collaborators have today blamed less than ideal ticket sales, the planning of support services through accurate ticket numbers, and the availability of these support services due to a series of competing major events occurring on the same weekend in the decision to postpone the event.

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See The Nowhere Festival's full statement below:

It is with deep regret that we announce the postponement of The Nowhere Festival Sydney 2025. Despite the best efforts of our dedicated team over the past 12 months, we have had to make this difficult decision several weeks ahead of the planned festival date.

The support services required to deliver the festival are contingent on achieving certain ticket sales thresholds. Unfortunately, current sales have not reached the necessary levels at this time. While we recognise that ticket purchase trends increase closer to the event, the timing of this is uncertain, and it poses significant risks to the artists, attendees, and the overall festival experience.

Compounding this challenge, other major events scheduled for the same weekend—Dreamstate, Sail GP, and The Laneway Festival—are placing additional pressure on critical resources and services in Sydney. Support service providers require immediate confirmation of final numbers, which we are unable to provide with the current ticket sales figures.

Given the number of international artists involved and the complexities of delivering a festival of this scale, we believe it would be irresponsible to allow this situation to go down to the wire.

We want to acknowledge the incredible work of our team, the unwavering support of artists and their representatives, and the enthusiasm of our ticket holders. Your belief in our vision has meant everything to us, and we are deeply disappointed not to be able to bring the festival to life as planned.

Ticket holders who purchased through Ticketbooth.com.au will receive a full refund. The refund process will be initiated in the coming days, all ticket holders will be contacted directly. For further inquiries, please contact Jody Coker at essentialeventsmanagement@gmail.com.

While this is a heartbreaking outcome, we remain hopeful about the future and continue to explore opportunities to relaunch The Nowhere Festival at a later date.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

A post shared by The Nowhere Festival (@thenowherefestival_)

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This announcement comes very shortly after MODE Festival, which was held at Cockatoo Island just a few months ago, shared news that they were forced to pay their 'user paid policing' bill with a government grant. So too, House Of Mince was forced to relocate from White Bay Power station in September of last year, after facing a hefty police bill of their own.

Read: Mode Festival forced to pay for NSW Police with arts grant funding

The cost of emergency services in running events in NSW has long been a deterrent and potential 'silver bullet' for events in their first year. Much of the criticism around the implementation of Gladys Berejiklian's Festivals Act of 2019 was that it prohibited first time festival organisers from ever getting off the ground, or making a profit. While that Act was recently amended by the current NSW Labor government, under the portfolio of Minister John Graham, The Nowhere Festival has made no comment on whether these new mechanisms to provide assistance to festival organisers were accessed or requested throughout this process.

Most of all though, Australia's cost of living crisis has very clearly had a huge impact on the forecasting for The Nowhere Festival. Even with some of the electronic world's most well respected star power, the festival couldn't convince enough punters early on to purchase tickets, which has then had a knock on effect which was impossible for them to ignore.

These artists are, for the most part however, clearly still coming to visit.

Eagle eyed fans may have noticed yesterday that Bizarro, in conjunction with Crown Ruler, announced a show in Eora that same weekend featuring the likes of Moodymann, Carl Craig, Luca Lozano, Mr. Ho, and local Adi Toohey, all of whom featured on The Nowhere Festival's bill.

As for the future of The Nowhere Festival, keep an eye here and via their socials to stay up to date.

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Jack Colquhoun is Mixmag ANZ's Managing Editor, find him on Instagram.